


He likes his coffee sweet

by MissWar



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, Maybe - Freeform, Multi, Sexual Tension, Smut, Stuff, Sweet, i guess, if i feel like it, jeanmarco, like eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-14 20:29:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 64,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2202027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissWar/pseuds/MissWar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean likes his coffee like he likes his men.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It wont ever happen

**Author's Note:**

> A look into their normal, daily lives? Yeah? Yeah.

   Everyday he comes into the coffee shop, twice a day, and every time, Connie takes his order before I can. Every single time, Connie is already at the counter with the guy's order down. One of these days, if I can just time it right to where I'm already at the counter when he walks in, just around the same time he always does, then maybe I can take his order, maybe then I could talk to him, maybe then I could know his name.  
  
          All Iknow about him right now is that he's in here twice a day, everyday, at the exact same times. I know that his hair is an undercut, or well, maybe its more like a mohawk? I don't know, but the top part is a sandy blond color, while the underneath is brown. A look I find oddly attractive. I know his eyes are golden brown, and I know that every time I see him he has a tight scowl on his face, never a smile. I know he at least goes to this college. He also changes his order just about every time he comes in, and it's always something very sweet. That's my extent of knowledge on this guy and yet I find myself anticipating for the times that he will come into the cafe.  
  
    “Marco! One triple chocolate chip frap extra chocolate syrup, extra whip cream!” Connie gives me the guy's order, and I get to work on the blender. Do you see what I mean? Always a little something extra to make an extra sweet coffee, extra sweet. Once again, Connie doesnt let me see the name on the cup, nor does he shout out the name. He pours the drink himself, and hands it to the guy himself, not letting me know anything. “Not fair..” I whine, while Con just gives me his best innocent grin. Ever since the first time I saw him come into the coffee shop three days, well four days ago now, and ask Connie if he knew him, and who he was, I have been teased about it non stop.  
  
     Apparently if I'm curious about someone, it's a crush. Connie thinks it's funny, and he does everything he can to make sure I won't be able to know the guys name for as long as possible. “What ever do you mean?” Connie mocks me when I whine and I gently slap his shoulder, and move to take the order of someone waiting in line.  
  
   “You're not Krista.” My best friend Ymir whines as I step up to the counter where she waits. Her girlfriend Krista also works in this coffee shop, so she comes in often to visit. “Nope, sorry. Now do you want a caramel spice frap or no?” She grins at me and nods. Naturally, as best friends of 23 years, which is our whole lives, I know exactly what she wants already. No talking necessary.  
  
   “Krista's shift ended two minutes ago, she's waiting for you in the back corner table with her own drink already.” Ymir smiles happily at me, and moves to the side to wait for her drink.

    “Thank you, Freckles... Sooo...” Ymir leans in close to me on her hand, over the counter, one eyebrow raised.

    “What?” I look at her over my shoulder as I blend her drink. Though I know, I really shouldn't have asked that, I already know what she's thinking about, and I really don't want to hear her question.  
  
    “Got any hot dates this week, Marco?” She asks, waggling her eyebrows while i just roll my eyes. I finish up her drink in silence, and set it down in front of her.

    “No matter how many times you ask that, the Answer will be no.” I tell her yet again for the, lets see, she asks this at every time she see’s me so its for the... fifth time this week..  
  
   “One of these days boy, I will get you a hottie of some sort.” Ymir snaps her fingers then points at me in a warning-like way. I shake my head, giving a little sarcastic laugh.  

    “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I jokingly call out to Ymir as she picks up her drink, and leaves to join her girlfriend in the corner of the cafe. Ymir getting me a significant other is like saying it's going to snow in the dessert while pigs fly. It's something that is never going to happen.  
  
  
  
                       

* * *

 

  
  
  
      “No.” I tell my dorm-mate Reiner for the fifteenth time.

    “Awww come on, Jean. You haven’t dated anyone in like.. three years..” He whines while poking me in the shoulder with one large finger. This is an act that looks absolutely ridiculous for someone his size. Reiner is a giant. The man is a beast who was built with a body that looks like it is made to hold the world up.  
  
        “There is nothing wrong with being single.” I remind him for the hundredth time, with a loud deep sigh as I attempt to finish off my sketch work.

    “I know, I know.. But still... Wouldn't you be happier if you were with someone..” He pries. I roll my eyes at him. Reiner has been trying to get me to get back in the dating game for the last three years now, even though I keep telling him it is never going to happen.  
  
    I love Reiner I do. He is a great friend, nice, caring, protective, and extremely funny, not to mention he always has food for me. However, he's always trying to find me someone to hook up with. He just really hates seeing me single. Hell, if he wasnt so in love with his boyfriend Bertholdt, he would probably date me, just to make sure I wasn't single.  
  
  “Okay fine, whatever. Sure. Just let me finish this sketch okay, it's due tomorrow and if I can't finish it in time, you're the first one I'm gonna blame.” I warn, picking up the paper with seemingly random lines sketched here and there, and wave it around in his face. He chuckles, and grins proudly.  
  
      I am a college student, and I mostly study art. I love to draw and paint, and well, I don't mean to ‘toot my own horn’ or whatever the fuck the expression is, but I am pretty damn good at it. I hope to do something with my life involving art once I graduate from college. I don't know what, maybe I will be an art teacher. Just as long as art is involved, I will be fine, and I will be happy. That's the complete opposite of my parents mentality by the way.  
  
   “Yesss! Just you watch, Jean. By the end of this week I will have a line of hotties waiting to get in your pants.” He nudges my shoulder and I just ignore it, even though I do almost loose my balance from it. Honestly, if Reiner pushed me at full strength, I would go flying.

  “Yeah sure.” I snort, trying my best not to laugh. Reiner chuckles as he gets off my bed, and stands to his feet.  
  
   “Hey now, don't be knocking yourself. You're a smart, athletic, artistic, and pretty damn good looking boy. You’ll have a line of suitors at are door in no time, trust me. They would have to be crazy not to come for you.” See, he’s a pretty good friend, and actually often treats me more like a son, or a little brother, Which honestly isn't that bad.  
  
  “Yeah, uh-huh. You forgot the part about me being a sarcastic, know-it-all, rude, up tight, fuck up asshole who does not know how to interact with people.” I add on and he chuckles a bit dryly. He wants to deny it, but he knows it's true, so he can't.  
  
 “Hey you never know, to each their own right? You're someone’s perfect cup of tea.” are his only words to offer as he walks back to his side of the room to continue on with his own home work. Yeah right. Someone being genuinely interested in me like that, is like Reiner braking up with Bertholdt and that he is going to stop playing jazz music while he does push ups at three in the morning. Its not going to fucking happen.


	2. full attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean and Sasha go into the coffee shop, so that Sasha can flirt with her crush. Sasha leaves with a phone number, and Jean leaves with curiosity about the freckled coffee boy.

           “This ones mine!” I whisper shout to Connie, jumping up to the counter before he can even get used to it. Today, i have managed to snag my chance at serving the cute guy. Everything was just as it normally is. He walks in around the same time, wearing similar cloths, meaning a red and black flannel, black jeans, red Doc Martians, and a black beanie covering have his hair. He looks a tiny bit more irritated then usual, but thats the only different thing. That is, until a girl with brown hair tied up in a high pony tail steps up next to him, and clings to him, and whispers something in his ear. Just my luck. The day i finally get to talk to him, he has someone, possibly his girl friend, with him. None the less, i want to make a good impression on this boy, and give a nice, genuine smile as he steps up to the counter.

         “Uh hi.. Can i get a cotton candy frap, extra raspberry sauce, and extra whip cream please? And uh, what do you want, Sasha?” He looks down at her, as she scans the board above. “And please. Before you say anything, dont brake my wallet.” The girl sighs, and snaps her fingers dramatically. I dont know if that was playful, it seems that way, but it could have also been taken as very rude. So either he is a jerk, or just very sarcastic.

      “I’ll take a brownie frap and a chocolate muffin?” She asks, looking up at the guy and he nods. I type out the order and reach for two cups. “Would you like large on both or?” I ask, he shakes his head and scans the menu quickly, probably for prices. “Sure, both large.” I nod, and grab two large plastic cups from my right. “Name?” I ask, trying to hold down my excitement. I am sorry if that sounds creepy to you, or whatever, but i have been dying to at least know this guys name all week.

    “Jean.” Jean? I question in my head as i write his name on both clear cups. What an odd name. Its probably French. I like it. Its different, unique. Definitely a name i wont forget. He steps off to the side to wait with the girl, as i go off to get her chocolate muffin.

  “You said _he_ would be the one taking orders..” I hear the girl whine quietly, from the corner of my eyes i can see Jean shrug as he watches me closely. “I thought he would, i swear, he takes my order everyday.” Are they talking about Connie? Connie is the one who always takes Jeans order, mostly because he didnt want me to find out the guys name.

    “Jean...” She whines more, tugging on his sleeve. He chuckles a bit, and pushes her gently away from him.“Okay, im sorry your spicy crush man isnt here. You can meet me here again after my run, alright? Maybe you can snag him then.” He offers. I hear her mumble something as she nods. Hold up. Does she have a thing for Connie? Okay, thats unexpected, but right now, i dont care. That means she isnt involved with Jean. I mean, he could still have someone else, and hey, for all i know this guy is as straight as a bar but it cant hurt to try right?

“Here’s your muffin Miss, your drinks will be done in just a second.” I place the paper bag on the counter in front of her and Jean with a kind smile on my face and go back to making their drinks. Like always, Jeans is extra sweet.

    “Jean..” I hear the girl whisper again, you know, she isnt the best at whispering as i am finding it really to hear them, and i am not even trying. “What?” he asks bluntly. I hear her giggle a bit, and the i hear a muffled whisper. “Oh shut up.” Jean whines. When i turn around about a minute later, both of their drinks ready, his face is bright red.

   “Here you go~ One Cotton Candy frap, extra sweet. One Brownie frap. Enjoy~” I smile sweetly at them as i set the drinks down, along with a set of napkins and two straws. Napkins and straws are things people usually get on their own, but hey, im trying to flirt here. “Thanks..” Jean mumbles, picking up his drink, napkin and straw. “No problem! Enjoy your day!” Yeah, i dont know how to flirt...

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

         “I said sorry..” I whine again as Sasha nags me about her stupid crush not being the one to take are order. I told her the same guy takes my order everyday, acting like its his mission in life to make my coffee, and apparently she has a crush on that dude and wanted to come along today. So, i let her. Its not like i can resist Sash, we’ve been friends since we were little guys in diapers, i am not going to say no to her over something as simple as letting her come with me on my daily coffee run so she can have a shot at flirting. However, some dude stepped up to the counter instead of the other, bald guy that Sasha has the hots for.

       I dont think i have ever seen this guy in the shop before now. He’s maybe an inch or two taller then me, wide shoulders, dark brown hair and eyes, tan skin and fucking freckles everywhere. How does one person have so many freckles, and thats just from what i could see of him. Meaning his face, arms, hands and neck. Thats still allot of freckles for just those places, and i highly doubt its just those spots. He also smiles, like allot. He hasnt stopped smiling once. He smiled while he took out order, while he made the coffees, when he handed them to us, when he took other orders. Heck, he even smiled while he just stood there, waiting for more people to come in. Yes, okay, i have sort of been watching him work. Its not weird, i am just.. intrigued is all. I am in here twice a day, everyday, you think i would have noticed someone like him before.

    “Jean. Stop checking out the new coffee boy. I need emotional comfort.” Sasha jokes, poking my cheek from across the table. I snap my ahead back towards her and groan. “I am not checking him out.. I am just wondering why i have not seen him in here before now. Thats all.” I try to defend myself, but she ignore me, and now her eyes are glued to counter. I look over, and sure enough, she’s staring at the dude that bald guy she finds ‘Spicy’, as she calls it.

    “Here, go by another muffin or something and try your luck with the dude.” I sigh, sliding a five dollar bill over to her. She grins at me, and takes it, quickly getting up and rushing over there. Normally she would be excited for the food, but this time its for a guy. If it was just for food though, i would have probably refused, but Sasha crushing is a very rare thing, and she is very picky about her men. So if she likes this guy as much as i think she does, well, i ought to be a good best friend about it and help her out.

     

      “I.Got.Digits. Suck it Kirstein!” Sasha returns to me about three minutes later, waving a napkin with blue numbers scribbled on it. “Well all be damned, nice going girl.” I laugh a bit, though it is no surprise. Sasha is a very pretty girl, no doubt about it, and she is pretty out going as well and pretty funny. Sasha is one of the few people in life i tolerate, and if i can tolerate her for twenty three years, Then she is something special. There arnt many people i like, its very hard to catch my interest, however.. Freckled coffee boy has my full attention..

        “Jean!” Sasha snaps her fingers in front of my face, and i blink quickly, pulling my head back in shock. I give her a ‘What the heck’ look, while she just giggles at my reaction. “Stop staring at his ass and go talk to him.” She mocks me. Sasha is constantly like this. She’s always playful and tends to brighten things up. Her teasing me is nothing new. I am completely used to it. However, i am not used to this type of teasing, and my face heats up a light red color.

    “I was not checking out his ass! And i told you already, i am just wondering about him because i havnt seen him here before, thats all..” I whine, though i feel like every time i say that, it becomes more and more of a lie. “Yeah sureee” She raises an eyebrow at me, picking at large pieces of her second muffin, and eating them happily.

     Sasha can pack food away like no one else. Her apatite is huge, but dont be thinking she goes around eating a ton of junk food. No, Sash has prime taste buds. Sure, she does eat some junk food, but the only potato chips she will eat are the kettle cooked kind. She wont eat most candys, as she says she can practically taste the preservatives. She grew up in a long family line of gourmet chefs, and she’s pretty picky, so if she likes a food enough to want two of them, like these muffins, well then they are pretty damn good.

   “I swear, have no interest in talking to the guy.” That is totally lie, but i’ll be damned if i admit that to anyone, including myself. “Whatever you say, Horse face.” She says, putting a bit of emphasis on the nickname she gave to me as a kid. According to her, my face greatly resembles a horse, so we just sort of astabloshed names for each other, and responses and what not.

     “Neigh, Neigh, Potato girl.” When we were eight, Sasha came over to my house, and well.. We we had potatoes for dinner, and we were helping my mom cook. Sasha didnt know what raw potatoes were, just mashed ones and chips.. so she sort of bit into a whole, raw potato expecting it to taste like it does mashed, and when i started laughing at her, expecting her to spit it out, she decided just to keep eating it. So yeah, when we were eight Sasha ate an entire raw potato just to rub it in my face that i was wrong. So naturally, whenever she called me a horse related name, i would just ‘Neigh’ and call her something potato related. Isnt are friendship beautiful?

     “Okay, Okay. Are we going to leave now?” She asks, gesturing to the fact that her muffins are now gone, and at least half of are drinks have been gulped down. “Yeah sure, you coming back with me after my run later?” I ask, referring to the offer i gave her earlier when the wrong guy ended up taking are order. Well the wrong guy for Sasha anyway, for me, well, i am.. whats a good word for this.. Pleased? Yeah, that works. I am very pleased that freckled boy ended up taking order instead... Sorry, Sasha.. But i really hope Freckles takes are order again.. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked you liked this chapter! The chapters will be getting a bit longer. I promise i will update as often as i can, but i have play rehearsals now, and that takes up allot of time. Whenever i can, i will try to write, but that is all i can promise. Hope you enjoyed this, dont be afraid to comment, i love feedback! and yeah!


	3. The Green Tea Frappuccino plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean only orders a Green Tea frap on.. Special.. Occasions..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fell asleep while writing this, twice. So that is why it is a tiny bit late.

       "Marco! Your hottie alert, straight ahead.” Connie whispers in my ear as he passes by me, and heads to the counter.

       There is a tight frown on Connie's  face, and when i look at Jean, i realize its because Sasha isnt with him. Connie hasnt stopped talking about Sasha since they talked for the first time, and exchanged numbers like.. four hours ago.. He’s got it real bad, and i think it’s hilarious.

     Also, if your wondering, no i havnt been here the last four hours, i actually just got here.How this place works is that us workers just show up when we dont have a class, which means i dont have one right now, I just got back from my Photography class, in another hour and a half though i have Literature.

    “Wheres Sasha?” I hear Connie ask. My head snaps up once i finish tying on my apron, and i end up focusing on Jean and Connie instead of signing into work.

     Connie is leaning over the counter in order to talk to Jean, who wears the same clothes from earlier, flannel, beanie and all. “She just found out she has a surprise Exam In an hour so she is at the library trying to shove as much information into her brain as possible.Sorry?” Jean offers her excuse, and a lame apology. He doesnt seem sorry, he doesnt seem to care either, he just shrugs like it is nothing. I have noticed lately that Jean isnt a very expressive person. “So your all Alone? Then your not worth my time. Marco! You take his order!” I blush a dark red as both of their heads shoot over at me. A small grin pulls up on Jeans lips, as he examines me. Oh dear god, is he checking me out? I hope so. Wait, what? I should not have thought that..

     “You know, Its a wise idea to make a good impression on me, you know, she is like my sister.” Jean switches his attention to me, and back at Connie, the grin on his face shrinks till its hardly even noticeable. “Yeah, Whatever. I’ll be sure to get your approval later.” Connie waves his hand a bit in the air, showing that he doesnt really care about what Jean is saying to him.

     “And i am not alone, Fuckn Reiner set me up on another date. You remember the signal?” What? Wait, is Connie actually like, friends with Jean? Is there stuff i dont know? What the hell, Connie? Wait.. Date? Signal? “You poor soul. I remember the signal, so dont worry man. You want the usual date drink?” Jean lets out a sigh what is probably relief, and nods his head. “One Green Tea Frap, extra whip cream, you go find your date.” Jean hands over the money owed, and instead of waiting for his drink, he looks around, before heading to a designated table. I watch as he slides into a chair across from a very pretty girl with short blonde hair, he asks something and she nods. They start talking. There is a little laughter from her here and there, but none from Jean.

     “Arnt you going to call out his drink? Or are you bringing it to him?” I look at Connie in confusion when i notice Jeans Green tea frap happens to be done, and just sitting here waiting. “No.  Jeans roommate is constantly trying to get him laid, so poor Jean gets set up on these horrible dates with people he has absolutely no interest. If he notices they are starting to like him, or hint at more date or couple things, as Jean so wonderfully phrases it, He will scratch the back of his head. Thats the signal for me to go over there, Hand him his drink, call him some sort of fruity name like ‘Love’ or ‘sugar’, kiss his cheek tell him i will see him in a bit and leave. So to the date, it looks like Jean is both gay and taken and they excuse themselves from the date or wait it out and never talk to Jean again afterwards. We came up with this some time last year.” Just as Connie finishes, the explanation, Jeans arm slowly moves to the back of his head, his hand scratches a bit, and then he moves his arm away and back into his lap.

     “Thats your cue!” What? I look at Connie confused as he shoves the Green tea Frap in my hands, and points in Jeans direction. “What, isnt it your Job!?” I defend myself, trying to back out of this. I really dont want to do this i mean, i would probably have a heart attack. He is already on my mind to much, who knows what would happen after this. Besides, isnt it something he established with Connie? I shouldnt have any part in this! “Dont matter, as long as it gets done. Besides, your not clocked in yet, so you can spend more time there, and i have customers to tend to. Also, arnt you a Theater major? You can pull his off like, way better then i can. So go!” Connie does not let me argue any further, and pushes me forwards.

  He does have a valid point. Connie distracted me while i was still tying my apron when Jean came in, and according to Levi, one of the shops owners, you can not clock in until you have your apron on, so i never did.. He’s also right, as i am a Theater Major. I have been in Drama classes since the Sixth grade. That is nine years of acting classes, plus all the plays i have had decent rolls in which is... 11.. 11 plays i have been in as either a lead or a supporting character, not counting class scenes, one acts, monologues or anything like that we ever put on. So obviously, i have decent acting skills.

    Okay, so is that how i should do this? As an acting method? I have had to be act in love before, i have been love interests in plays, this should be nothing compared to that. I can do this, easily. I mean, granted, Jean is plenty more attractive then anyone i have ever had to pretend to be in love with.. or anyone i have know.. but i can do this..

    “Hey, love. Thought i would bring you your drink before i get to work, hope thats okay?” I ask Jean, doing my best to sound a bit nervous as i step up, setting his drink down infront of him, and kissing his cheek. I see Jeans eyes glance to the counter behind me, then back at me. He goes with it. A grin pulls up on his lips, and he grabs my hand, tugging me into his lap.

   “Well arnt i special, then. Got a minute before you go and work your butt off?” Dont tense up, Marco, stay calm, relax. This is allot more then Connie said happened, but just go with it. Improve, Thats what this is, its an improve scene, just keep going with it, just like in class. “I havnt clocked in yet.. So yeah.. I can stay a minute or two before i go back..” I agree to Jeans ‘Offer’ and nuzzle myself into his lap. I look over to the girl Jean was having coffee with, and she is sitting there shocked, Jeans eyes follow mine.

    “Oh im sorry. Love, this is Marie. A friend of Reiner’s. He still thinks i need more friends.” Jean is a pretty decent actor, it makes me curious if he is in drama to. “Hi..” The girl pauses a second, realizing my name is yet to be said. Jean did that on purpose though, he doesnt know my name either. “Marco. Its very nice to meet you.. im afraid i should get going though..” I tell her my name with a kind smile and then look at clock on the wall in the far distance. I start to slide off Jeans lap but i am stopped suddenly.

    “Aww come on, Freckles.. You can stay longer then that cant you? This is the only time i will get to see you until tomorrow morning..” Jean whines a bit, wrapping his arms around my waist to hold me to him, and placing his chin on my shoulder. All my skills as an actor disappear right here, and right now, as my face heats up into the darkest shade. I could hardly feel Jeans presence the first time he pulled me into his lap, but this time, i can feel every single place we touch. I can feel his warmth, and his breath on my neck, and the sweet smell of sugar that radiates from him.

     “A-alright.. One more minute.. But only because it’s you..” I sigh at the last part, trying my best to relax again. I just have to remember, it isnt real, its acting, he is doing this to get out of a date, dont tell yourself anything you will regret, and more importantly.. dont let Jean feel how fast your heart is beating..

   I do my best to focus on the girl across from me as Jean kisses my jaw. “Thanks, Marco..” He whispers quietly, I nod, giving a small smile. 

  “Oh uh, i should get going, i have classes soon.. Nice meeting you..” Right then and there, the girl across the table from me makes herself an excuse, and quickly gets up, grabbing her drink, and rushing out.

      “Well, that went way quicker then it does with Connie. Thanks, your allot more of a convincing actor.” Jean thanks me, his normal scowl on his face as i remove myself from his lap. He stands up, green tea frap in his hand, and takes a long sip. I just realized he is drinking my favorite.  Green tea is actually my favorite frap, how could i forget that? I havnt had one in so long..

   “I am a Theater major..” I give my reasoning behind my decent performance, while i blush lightly, tangling my hands together behind my back, a nervous and embarrassed habit of mine. So much for not getting my hopes up. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "That explains it. Next time, im asking you for help instead of Connie.. Besides, i dont think i can ask my best friends boyfriend to pretend to be my gay lover whenever i dont want to deal with a date..” I give him a tiny smile, and he gives me a larger one in return.

    Honestly, i dont care about Connie belonging to sasha or however i said it, i just want to do that with Marco a few more times. Dont get the wrong idea, i dont want to date him or anything, i dont do the dating thing. I just think Marco makes a better fake gay lover then Connie...

    “Uh, Sure? I mean, if im here and you need help then sure.. I uh, should get back to work now.. Bye..” He stumbles out, light pink dusting his cheeks before he gives me a tiny wave and a breath taking smile before heading back behind the counter.. that was... cute.... I watch as he disappears behind a curtain, and i sigh quietly.  Maco, huh? That’s a name i wont be forgetting soon..

 

        “Soo you have a beautifully freckled boyfriend named Marco, who works at the coffee shop?” Reiner smirks at me as i walk into my dorm room at the end of the day.

   Reiner has known about Connie and I’s little act to get me out of dates, as the people he hooks me up with usually contact him afterwards, wondering why the hell he set them up with someone who was taken by another guy.

   “He’s some guy who works at the Coffee shop. He’s a theater major, and wasnt on duty at the time so Connie sent him instead of coming himself.” I shrug it off, because i know exactly what Reiner is thinking, and they are very dangerous thoughts. “Are you sure he is just some guy at the coffee shop? Cause from what i heard today, it was allot more then the usual gag..” He raises an eyebrow at me, that same annoying grin still sits on his face. She told him in detail? Or did he have her tell him? Knowing Reiner, he probably asked her.. Damn him and his desperation to get me a partner..

    “Was it? I thought it was normal?” I shrug yet again, and go to my dresser, grabbing out a large shirt and a pair of grey boxers, i want to take a shower. “Really? Usually your little scenes consist of Connie bringing you a drink, a kiss to the cheek, a pet name and a promising goodbye.” I nod my head because yeah, that is usually what we do. “Yeah, so this time it was someone else.” I head to the bathroom, but before i can escape, Reiner starts talking again, and if i leave while he is talking, then i loose.

    “Someone who sat in your lap, cuddled against you, kissed your cheek, and apparently you called him several loving names and gave him a kiss to the Jaw or two, and even went so as far as wrapped your arms his waist?” I shrug my shoulders yet again, trying not to blush or brake under his words. He really does know like, every detail, but i wont talk.. Bad things will happen if i loose..

   “So?” I try to ask in a nonchalant tone. “So? Jean that is more physical contact then you permit from people in a day.” Okay, so he has a valid point. Physical contact really isnt my thing. I tend to limit how much people can touch me. I cant take more then like three hugs in a day without flipping out. Like, Sasha hanging on my arm,i can handle because she has done that since we were little, and im used to it, but that is about it. I hardly even hug Sasha and Reiner, and yet i was practically clinging to Marco when he was in my lap. I dont get it. Some how i felt oddly calm with him there, that last minute was for nothing other then a chance to feel that a little while longer, and try to figure out why i was feeling it.

     “Jean.. Do you by any chance, i dont know.. Have the Hots for this Marco guy?” My face heats up a dark red and i shake my head furiously. “Dude! No! I have never even seen him before today! Holly shit man, dont jump to shit like that. I think he’s hot but thats it, nothing more. Dont go trying to get him for me, alright? Its not like that... Can i shower now?” I let words just spill out of my mouth, as i get a bit frustrated, i get angry easily, okay? Dont  judge.

    Reiner chuckles, and nods, opening his mouth to say something, then pauses before he continues on with talking. “Fine. I wont do anything, but if you dont have his number in your phone by the end of the week, i will get it for you. Go take a shower now, you need it... You smell like a hamster cage.” Thank the lord. Its better if i do this, because i can get Marcos number in a friendly way, while Reiner would ask for the number for dirty reasons that i wish to not be involved in.

   Anyway... What ever a hamster cage smells like, i really dont want to smell like that, so i finally go into the bathroom for a good wash, and let my wonder to places i probably shouldnt let it, like; 

  _"I mean, So what if i really felt the need to hold Marco to me. I dont plan on taking it any farther then that, so its fine... I hope.."_

_"Why does he have so many Freckles? I am not complaining though, They're cute freckles an- did i just think his freckles are cute?"_

_"I wonder what classes he has, and why havnt seen him around before, i wonder what his favorite coffee is... I really want to know more about him... In like.. a non gay way, i swear."_

_"...I told Reiner that i think Marco is hot earlier, didnt i?"_

_"Fuckn shit."_

_"Not my fault, I cant help it if i find the guy extremely attractive. Its his fault. I blame him, and his stupid freckles and brown eyes..."_

_"How does he smile so much and look so fucking hot all the time. Dear god."_

_"Screw it, he's perfect. I am screwed. He's screwed. Lets be screwed together."_

_"These are the gayest thought i have ever had."_

_"I need to get out of this shower or i am going to go into no mans land territory of my brain."_

_"Reiner thats my shirt!"_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, as i said, i feel asleep in the middle of writing this, so i feel like it is a little bit of a shitty chapter, hopefully you dont think so and im just being my own worst critic as always. Whatever, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! More updates soon! Dont be afraid to comment, i love them!  
> Oh! also! I can not believe how many hits and how many kudos and bookmarks this story all ready has, its amazing, i cant believe it, so thank you all so much!


	4. Question time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Library, sketching, questions, roommates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the questioning Jeans dialogue is italicized, to make it easier to understand.

        Okay, Marco. Think. You didnt get the chance to try and woo Jean this morning like you planned. I mean, its not my fault, or even his, its my name teachers fault. My math teacher decided he wanted to talk to me about literally nothing. Seriously, I had a boy to make swoon over me, and Ms.Petra decided then was the perfect time to tell me to stop sleeping in class. If you dont want me to sleep in class, let me go to the coffee shop. I stayed up all night thinking about a guy, half way threw the night i said something along the lines of “Fuck it. I want him.” to myself. The other half of the night was spent thinking about him more, and trying hard to think of ways to get closer to him.

       I decided i was going to try my hand at casual flirty-ness first, before anything else, then go for things like hanging out, and phone numbers and stuff like that. Just when i decided on that, my alarm clock went off, and i had sudden realization i wasted my opportunity for sleep. I slept through out all of math. Petra just had to stop me from leaving, i mean, she is really nice and sweet, but thanks to that by the time i clocked into the coffee shop, Jean had come and gone before i could see him. If i get to my second shift in time today, i should have a chance then.. But the problem is... That shift is forty minutes away, and im passing time in the library like always, but its not working, and i am really anxious. I really just want to see him..

     “Marco?” Wish granted.. I thin to myself as a familiar voice says my name from above me. I look up, and sure enough, the body matches the voice. Jean stands there, faded red tank top hanging onto his torso, black jeans, and the same black docs that he always seemed to wear. The tank top is pretty new to me, as he usually wears flannels when i see him, but i am not complaining. Jean actually has a very well toned body, strong arms and shoulders, and it looks to me like some possible abbs, i would bet money on it that he works out at least once a day.

     “Jean? Uh hey!” I try my best to pull my eyes from his body before he can notice, and look at his face, a large smile on my own. “You dont have work?” He sits himself down in the wooden chair next to me, laying a black messenger back onto th table. I feel the tips of my ears heat up a bit, and i shake my head.

      “Nope! My shift doesnt start for another forty minutes or so!” I push myself back into my usual happy, cheerful bubble and try to stay calm with Jean sitting so close to me. Its actually not even that close though.. are knees are just slightly touching under the table, and yet i can feel butter flys swarming in my stomach. “Cool, thats actually around the time i head for my second coffee run.. Mind if i wait with you then? I kind of have nothing else to do..” I nod instantly. This is better then what i had planned. A whole forty minutes of Jean all to myself? This is perfect, this way i can establish friendship faster. Friendship is good.

      “Yeah sure.. But uh.. Are you sure you dont have anything you could do in forty minutes? It might be a little boring just talking with me..” I realize i have no idea where to start with this whole thing, and this is the first thing i manage to say to him. Jean grins a bit, and chuckles quietly. He laughed, it was a little laugh, like a giggle, but i made him laugh. A small blush swarms to my cheeks as i feel a strange sense of pride. “Well, i have a project for my art class. I have to sketch an educational environment. So i was gonna just sketch the library quickly, and be done.. But i think it might be more fun to sketch someone reading, and you just so happen to make a fantastic model..” My face heats up to a even redder shade of blush as Jeans eyes flicker over my body. I watch in shock as his tongue slips out, and licks his lower lip quickly. Dear god, oh my, is this happening? Is this real? I am not dreaming am i? Please dont let this be a dream..

      “S-sure..” I stutter out with a smile, grabbing one of the three books on my table, and opening it up like i am reading it. “This work for a pose?” I offer, not really understanding what im doing. Jean nods his head, and reaches into the messenger bag he brought with him, and pulls out a sketchbook, a few pencils and an eraser.

    “You can talk me while i sketch, like about yourself, or ask me questions, stuff like that, if it makes you more comfortable?” Jean informs me, glances back and forth from me, to the paper, and suddenly, his hands are moving slowly, drawing lines across the page. I do my best to stay in that pose, and try to relax. Talk to him huh? okay.. Start with simple shit..

     “Bodt.. My last name is Bodt..” is somehow the first thing i manage to spill out. Wow. Out of all the things i could have asked, or told him, i chose my last name.

“.. Kirstein..” He mutters, I raise an eyebrow at him,confused,  and he sighs. “Thats my last name. Its Jean Kirstein..” He restates his name for me, and i smile.. Even his name is cute. I think its French? The first name is obviously French, Kirstein probably is French to. Should i ask if he’s French?

    “Yes, Marco. I am French. I moved here from France with my parents when i was six.” Jean beats me to it, and a i blush. How in the heck did he know what i was thinking. “Oh.. I am Polish and Austrian. My moms from Poland and my dad is from Austria, but i was born here.” Jean nods his head, focuses his eyes on me for a second, then looks back down at his sketchpad. He has it positioned so that i cant see it.

    “Are you an art major?” i try my luck at asking a question. “Yeah, thats what i want.” He replies, and I nod my head slightly, trying not to move to much.

    “Move your head a bit to the left, please?” He asks staring at my face again. I oblige and turn my head towards the given direction.

   “Perfect. Thanks.” From this position, i cant really see Jean much, i can only see him from the corner of my eyes now.

   “Anything else your studying?” I try to think of more, simple questions to ask him. Hopefully by the end of these, now thirty minutes, i'l know allot more about him, and i can at least call him a friend. “Medicine.” He huffs at the word he says like its some sort of stupid fairy tale. I am gonna take a guess and say he doesnt actually want to study medicine, but is being forced.

    “What about you? Is Theater the only major your going for?” Jean changes the subject before i can even bring it up. I guess its not something he’s willing to talk about with just anyone, so i wont poke or prod at him for it. “No uh, i am also studying Literature. I want to be a teacher..” Jean smiles a bit, and nods his head in a knowing way.

   

   For the remainder of those thirty minutes, i would just ask Jean a question, he would respond, and ask me the same thing and i would answer and move onto a next question.

“Favorite color?”

_“Red, yours?”_

“Green.”

 

“Favorite movie?”

_“Aladdin, whats yours?”_

“Hocus Pocus.”

 

“Favorite holiday?”

_“Halloween, i like doing special effects makeup.”_

“Same”

 

“Favorite Coffee?”

_“Dont matter as long as its extra sweet. You?”_

“Green tea Frap.”

 

“Favorite band?”

_"Not a band, a singer, and its Elvis Presley."_

 “Wow, didnt see that coming.”

_“Shut up, whos your favorite singer then?”_

“Paramore.”

_“Wow”_

“Shush you.”

 

“Favorite Book?”

_“ IT by Stephen King. Whats yours?”_

“The Green Mile, also by Stephen King”

_“Nice choice.”_

 

“Why are you in the coffee shop, everyday, twice a day? at the same times?”

_“I go after i work out, plus i just really like coffee.”_

“You work out?”

_“You dont get this perfect by not”_

 

“Any Allergies?”

_“I am deathly allergic to shrimp”_

“I am allergic to crab”

_“I love crab.”_

“I love shrimp.”

   The last question i get to ask before our time is up has us both laughing a bit at are stupidity.

   “Alright, We should get to the coffee shop or your gonna be late, and im gonna die from a lack of sugar and coffee.” I chuckle a bit, an slip my books into my bags, braking the pose i have held for so long. Surprisingly i dont feel stiff or anything, Jean was right, talking to him to relax did help. By now, i know a good amount about Mr.Kirstien, and i think its safe to say we are at least first level friends.

    “Sooo, do i get to see that sketch?” I ask, looking over his shoulder as he places his supplies back into his bag, but leaves the note book open on the page. My eyes scan over it, and a bright blush creeps onto my cheeks. His art is amazing. Its only a simple sketch, but it looks so much better then anything i can do. It has such amazing detail, i am pretty sure he got down every freckle, you can even see the laughter in my eyes as i smile. Its amazing..

    “Wow..” I whisper quietly. Thats about all i can muster to say. Jeans face heats up, and he closes it quickly, and slides it into his bag. “Its good enough to turn in.” He shrugs, i smile and giggle a bit. How cute, he’s so modest. It was amazing, really.

     “Its better then that, its amazing, I didnt know i could look that good.” I joke, nudging his shoulder a bit with my own as we leave the library side by side. “You always look like that..” I hear him whisper quietly. A small smile forms on my face as we walk towards the coffee shop. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   “Did yah do it!? Did you get the digits!?” I sigh, and shut the door to my dorm shut behind me.

    “No, sorry. No digits.” I roll my eyes at the look of disappointment on both Sasha, and on Reiners faces while Bertholt, Reiners boyfriend, just looks confused.

   “Digits?” He whispers to Reiner, wondering what the hell is going on as i flop onto my bed. Today, i spent a good hour and a half talking with Marco, and learning the basics about him. Hes even worse then i thought. He’s so fucking nice, and sweet and kind and smart and funny and ugh fuck me running, he is just fucking perfect. Its making this really fucking hard. Friends, thats all i want okay, Friendship, and he is making that so fucking hard..

     “Theres some cute coffee shop boy that jean has the hots for. His name is Marcus.”

   “Marco.” I mumble in order to correct Reiner, and instantly regret it. “You defended his name. You want his ass.” I groan, and press my face into my pillow. “Your reasoning and logic is seriously twisted..” i whine, My roommate, and my friends, totally suck.

   “Wait. uh.. Do you mean Marco Bodt?” Bertholt pauses for a second, and i look up quickly when i hear Marcos full name. “Yeah.. Why?” I ask slowly, and carefully. What could it possibly be now? I mean, Bert is as harmless as a butterfly, he’s just nervous like all the time. So i know his intentions, or whatever it is going on inside his head right now, is no where as bad as what Reiner and Sasha are thinking.

   “He’s uh.. Thats my roommate..I sort of invited him to come over in a little because i feel bad for leaving him alone in the dorm... I am sorry?” Fucking shit. No. I am screwed. So screwed. I can tell by the smirks on Sasha and Reiners faces. I am so screwed. Soo fucking screwed..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this little chapter! Three day weekend no! That means more updates! Thank you all, i cant believe how many hits and kudos this has, oh my.  
> Dont be afraid to comment, i love them!


	5. Two types of dreams.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so uh, this chapters got a bit of sexual content, basically just grinding, i promise. If you dont want to read, skip past the italicized stuff, and you'll be fine. Okay, uh, Enjoy!

      “Uhm.. I am Bertholts Roomate? He told me t-” Before i can even finish my sentence, the giant muscular blonde guy who opened the door wrapped an arm across my shoulder, and dragged me inside. “Marcos here!” He shouts loudly to announce my presence as he slams the door behind us. This is.. Reiner.. I think thats his name.. From his looks, and how loud he is, i am guessing this is my roommates boyfriend. Bertholt talks about his lover all the time, based of what i heard, this is defenitly the guy. Not to mention he knows my name, so i guess im right.

     Earlier today, Bertholt told me he was going to be spending the night at his boyfriends dorm to have a movie marathon with some friends. Knowing Bertl, he probably felt bad that he would be leaving me alone all night, and invited me to come along. I agreed because well, i really dont like being alone at night, and i think it would be good for me to become better friends with Bertholt, and its probably a good idea to meet his boyfriend to.

   “Hi Marco.” Bert nervously greets me as i am lead over to two sets of beds. Bertholt is always nervous, i think its kind of cute in a sort of childish, innocent way. “Hi Marco~” A more female voice purrs. I look over at the other bed, and there sitting criss crosse with a big smirk on her face, is Sasha. “Sasha?” I ask confused, and she just grin at me, a bit of laughter is in her eyes. Is she friends with Betholt and Reiner? She must be if she’s here. Oh man, Connie will kick my ass if he finds out Sasha is here and i didnt invite him. I mean, if it was my dorm i would do it, but its not so i cant do that cause its rude.

    “So i am guessing, since he didnt know, that you dont know either?” Reiner questions as he sits back down next on one one of the beds, next to his boyfriend. “Know what?” I ask in confusion, standing awkwardly next to the bed Sasha sits on

   . Glancing around the room, i realize its a bit messy. There are some clothes spread out here and there, beds unmade, random objects here and there. The desk next to this bed has pens and pencils and peaces of papers scattered everywhere, and a green and black flannel is tossed over the desks chair. On the other side of the room, on the coffee table by the tv there is a bowl of popcorn, a couple boxes of candys, a few bags of chips. In the corner of the room, behind the tv area, there is a door to the left, and a door to the right. They must be the mini kitchen and bathroom.

   “Do you know who my roommate is, Marco?” Reiner asks, staring in my direction, or really the era that is around me. I follow his eyes, and try to think if Bertholt has ever said anything about Reiners roommate, but nothing comes to mind. “Nope.” I shrug. I dont get why i am being questioned about this though. Who cares who Reiners roommate is? Is he going to be watching the movies with us? In that case it doesnt really matter, i mean there is no one i really hate or anything like that, i am a pretty friendly person.

   “Oh, then you’ll find out in a minute, when he stops being a wuss and gets his ass out of the kitchen? Or is he still taking a shower?” Reiner chuckles, and looks over at Sasha for an answer. “Horse face went to cry in the shower a bit, but right now he’s in the kitchen, making hot chocolate so that he can stall his entrance.” Sasha giggles, and just then, i hear someone shout.

   “I was NOT crying in the shower, And fuck you Potato Girl, your the one who wanted me to make hot chocolate.” My eyes go wide, and my attention is pulled over to one of the two doors inside the room. There stands Jean in the doorway (wearing the same red faded tank top as earlier, and a pair of black boxers) of what must be the kitchen, holding a white tray with several random mugs.

   Thats why Reiner was questioning me? Crap. Jeans his roommate. I am spending the night here. With Jean. The bed i am leaning on is probably his to. Shit, how did i not realize it? Sketch paper, art supplies, flannels? All signs of Jean Kirsteins natural habitat, and i didnt even notice. I am so stupid. Okay, calm down, Marco. Its no big deal. Jeans your friend now right? Right. Its totally cool and normal to hang out and watch movies all night in your friends dorms. So be chill Marco, be chill.

   “Oh, Uh, Hey Jean..” I stumble out, my face a light shade of red. Okay, that definitely was not chill. Jean looks over at me, and he tenses up, almost like he forgot i was there. “Hey Marco..” He says quickly, and then goes around the room, handing cup a mug of hot chocolate to everyone.

    “Dude Marco, Sit down, unless that is, you plan to stand for the next five hours?” Jean points out the fact that i am still awkwardly standing next to the bed when he hands me a mug. “Its my bed, i promise you its fine, Just sit.” He assures me, i am guessing he could see the hesitance in my face. I always feel so awkward when i am at some ones house for the first time, i never know what to do with myself, but this is worse, this is Jeans house. I obey him though, and slowly sit down on the bed. “There yah go. Now, be a good boy and hold my hot chocolate for me while i get the other snacks.” I raise an eyebrow at him as his tone changes, he sounds like he is talking to a small dog. None the less, i hold his mug of hot cholate in my free hand, and watch as he passes around the other snacks.

    Reiner and Bert get a bag of cheddar lays chips and a box of sour patch kids. Sasha gets a bag of crushed pepper and sea salt, kettle cooked potato chips and then Jean set the bowl of popcorn down next to me, along with a bag of assorted brand named chocolates.

   He doesnt sit down yet however, he goes over to the closet next to his bed, and pulls out a pile of blankets. He tosses one to Reiner and Bertholt, and they are instantly snuggled together under it. Then he tosses one to Sasha, who wraps her self up like a burrito, then he hands one over to me, and walks back to the TV and grabs the remote and comes back. I am a bit confused as to why Jean only gave me a blanket and not one for himself, then when he sits down next to me, i get that he intends to share the blanket with me. “Thanks.” Jean takes his mug from me, grabbing some pillows from around his bed, and tossing them behind us, against the wall to make it more comfortable. He sits against the pillows, and turns the tv on from the remote.

   “Dude, Marco, make yourself comfortable dude.” Sasha looks over at me, raising an eyebrow at me. I sit on the edge of the bed, awkwardly holding my mug close to me, the snacks and blanket lay next to me as i dont know what to do with them. I look back at Jean, only to see he is giving me the same look as Sasha. I notice that he left a space next to him, just for me. I sigh, and move myself backwards, settling into that little corner spot. I pull the blanket up over my legs, and then move it so its covering Jean to. He reaches down, I place the candy bag, and the bowl of popcorn in the very small gap between us.

   

    Once my position is adjusted, Jean goes ahead, and selects a movie. We end up deciding that ‘The Corpse Bride’ is the first movie of the night. Though honestly, i dont think i will be able to pay attention. Jean is so close to me right now, there is hardly any space between us, i can his body heat, and i can smell the sweet scent of Vanilla and brown sugar coming from him. I try to calm my body down by taking a sip of hot chocolate.

   “Oww” I hiss quietly the second the drink hits my tongue. The drink is still piping hot, and it scorches the tip of my tongue a bit. “Sorry. I should have warned you about how hot it still is.” Jean apologizes to me, a light pink color creeping onto his cheeks. I glance around the room, Jean is the only one who noticed. Thats good, because its less embarrassing when only one person notices your stupid mistakes, but its even worse because that one person who noticed just so happens to be my current crush. I mean, in my defense the cup isnt hot, like at all, so i figured it was probably cooled enough to drink, and went for it without thinking because i was so distracted by the cute boy next to me.

     “Its okay..” I mumble, frowning a bit. My tongue actually hurts quite a bit from that burn. I guess my frown is a bit to apparent, because Jean scowls, and reaches up, and grabs my jaw, making me jump in my place. “Stick out your tongue.” Jean demands quietly, as to not attract the others eyes.. I gulp, and slip my tongue out of my mouth. He tilts my head left and right, examining my head.

    “The tip of your tongue is a bit read.. I should get you some cold water..” Jean starts to get up, but i grab his arm and shake my head. “N-no its fine. I promise.” I beg quietly, Jean narrows his eyes at me, then sighs quietly and sits back down next to me. He places his hot chocolate in his lap where it wont spill, and opens the bag of assorted chocolates. He takes one out, and hands it to me.

   “Suck on this then.” My face heats up more as i take the candy. Its a bite size snickers bar. That is a horrible out of context sentence, i have reason to blush.

  I dont know why he thinks it will help, but i do it anyway. Like i thought, it doesnt really help, but the pain of the burn went away a good two minutes later.

 

    “Marco..” Jean whispers into my ear about thirty minutes or so into the movie. I jump a bit in my spot, but try to play it cool, and look over at him casually. I watch as he stifles a yawn, then glances behind himself. “I am really tired.. I am gonna sleep.. Do not tell the others, and do not let them near me, okay? Otherwise i will end up with giant sharpie dicks on my forehead okay? They wont do it to you cause they dont know you well enough yet, but they will not hesitate to degrade my beautiful face while i sleep. Kay? I am trusting you.” I nod my head and bite my lip. Jean moves are empty mugs, the popcorn bowl, and the candy to the side. I dont really care considering i havnt touched either, i just drank my Hot Chocolate once it cooled down.

    Once everything is out of the way, Jean does something completely unexpected. He leans against me. His body pressed against mine, and he nuzzles his head into my shoulder. My body tensed, and i tried to focus on the movie, and not the fact that my crush is currently using my shoulder as a pillow to sleep on, or the fact that Jean looks so cute and peaceful while he sleeps..

   “Yo Marco. Jean out cold?” I look up quickly, my face turning red when i realize that i must have been staring at Jeans sleeping form. “Oh uh, Yeah.” I mutter out quickly, then freeze. Jean told me not to tell them. Shit. What do i do? I cant just take it back. But also, its sort of obvious that Jean is asleep..

   “Lame. He ask you to protect him from the sharpie monster?” Reiner grins at me, while Betholt just smiles softly and... Sasha doesnt even care, she’s still watching the movie, completely blocking out everything but that and her chips. “Yeah.” I nod my head. So long as i dont allow his face to be scribbled on in permanent marker, i pass the test of trust right? They were gonna know he was asleep, its obvious, he definitely isnt this calm and peaceful while awake, besides, why else would he lean on me like this?

   “Then dont let Sasha near him, She’s actually the culprit of that, i just let it happen. Also..” Reiner pauses at the end of his sentence, and looks down at his boyfriend, like he wants the other to finish his sentence. Bertholt sighs and shakes his head. “Fine...” Reiner groans in an annoyed town, sort of like a little kid who cant have the candy he wants, and goes back to watching the movie, acting like he never said anything. I raise an eyebrow, and try to do the same thing he does, meaning i turn back to the movie. What was he going to say to me that Bertholt wouldnt let him? I guess i’ll let it slide for now, whatever it is, it probably isnt all that important if he just instantly agreed not to tell and changed his focus so quickly.

 

       “And then there was one..” I whisper quietly to myself. By the end of the movie, everyone around me is asleep. Reiner and Bertholt fell asleep ten minutes away from the ending, and Sasha, well the second the movie ended, she let out a huff, then a yawn and rolled off the bed, onto the floor and was asleep in the blink of an eye.

    “Make that two..” A quiet yawn comes from my left, and i look down at Jean. He raises his head away from my shoulder, and slowly rises to his feet. He quickly goes around the room, collecting the mugs and snacks, taking them into the kitchen and then returning empty handed. “Time to sleep..” He grumbles, fixing his bed so that he can climb into it. I get up, and look around the room for a spot to sleep on the floor.

   “What are you doing?” Jean whispers to me, when i turn around he stands by his be, arching an eyebrow at me. “Looking for a good spot to sleep on the floor...” I answer honestly, He shakes his head at me, and points at his bed. “Jean no. Its your bed, i can sleep on the floor.” I instantly refuse, knowing exactly what i meant. He intended for me to sleep in his bed, while he sleeps on the floor. I wont except that, i think its rude to kick someone out of their own bed for you comfort.

   “Marco. I dont care, get in the fucking bed.” He whispers harshly. I cross my arms across my chest, and shake my head, putting on my best serious face. He glares at me, and i gulp while trying to maintain my rebellious stance.. After a few seconds He sighs, and crawls into the bed.

    Victory! Victory for, Marco! “Your turn.” Jean instructs quietly, trying not to wake the others. I pause and look at him confused. What does he mean? My turn? “Marco. Get in the bed.” I freeze and stare at the empty spot in the bed next to him. He wants me.. to share the bed with him.. Bad idea.. “Im sleeping on the floor...” I ignore him, and grab a pillow from off his bed. Just as i do, his hand reaches out and latches around my wrist. He yanks harshly, dragging me down and onto the bed. I gasp, and tense up in shock.

    “Good night, Marco.” He lets out a huff, and turns on his side, away from me, facing the wall. I sigh, and adjust myself so i am laying down more comfortably, and the blanket is over both of us. I turn to my side, my back facing Jean, and slowly close my eyes as i sigh in defeat. “Good night, Jean.”

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    _“Marco! Stop!” I whine desperately up at Marco as he grinds his crotch against my own. A slight grin is placed on his lips where there is usually a happy smile.. He has this wild look in his eyes as he teases me, like he gets enjoyment from it._

_“Stop what?” His sweet voice purrs sexually in my ear, then he slowly moves his head down, kissing along my neck, and across my shoulders. I squirm below him, trying my best to contain my gasps. “Tease..” I breath out  when his hips once again collide with my own._

_He pulls his head away from my chest, and gives me a sly grin. Marco pushes his hips back down and i roll mine up in anticipation to meet his. As are crotches grind together, created a very lovely feeling of friction, he slides his hands down my bare chest while my own hands tangle together behind his neck._

_“Whats the matter, Jean? You seem quiet today?” Marco gives me a taunting smile as i bite down on my lip to contain my noises. I shake my head to tell him no, and he returns with a disappointed pout. No one person should be able to look so cute while simultaneously being the sexiest thing one has ever seen._

_“Thats a shame.. I really like the noises you make~” He winks down at me with another harsh roll of hips. I  let out a small groan and wrap my legs tightly around his waist. “Marco..” I moan quietly, moving my head up, wanting to feel the sweet taste of his lips over mine. The need to kiss him at this moment is a desperate one._

_"Thats what i like to hear.” He gives me a satisfied grin, and slides his tongue over my bottom lip, right before he slams are lips together in a passionate kiss._

_“Jean!” I hear him moan suddenly, which has me taken back. “Jean!” I hear again, but this time, its not a moan, its a shout._

 

      My eyes burst open and i take in a quiet gasp. Did i really just have a fucking wet dream about Marco Bodt? I havnt had a dream like that since  twelfth grade. This little crush thing of mine is getting out of hand. Like quickly. When i start having sexual dreams about someone, that means its time to fucking bale. I cant do that to Marco though.. I cant see myself without him, which is really fucked up on my part considering i didnt even know the guy existed four days ago.

    Speaking of wet dreams, why did i wake up? Im not going to lie, i wouldnt have minded if that dream continued on, but what made me wake up from that?

   “Jean..” A disgruntled groan, followed by incoherent mumbling comes from next to me. I quickly look over, and probably would have pissed my pants if had remembered i had Marco sleep in the bed with me any later. Once i relax, I watch carefully as Marcos body twists and turns, grumbling and moaning things i cant comprehend, i dont even think they are in English?

   “Jean..” He groans out the only understandable thing yet again, my name. I would like to think Marco is having the same kind of dream i had, that would definitely make me happy in more then one way, but judging by the way he tosses about frantically, the cold sweat dripping down his face, and the whimpers of fear, its probably not.

   I conclude that its actually the opposite of what i dreamed off when Marco suddenly bolts up right, escaping from his dream, Panting hard, body shaking, and tears streaming down his cheeks as begins to cry hysterically, my name still being whispered under neath his jagged breaths. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so not used to writing that kind of scene, but i did it anyway. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry its a bit late. Dont be afraid to comment, i love them! Thanks again!


	6. I guess i have no choice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeans a good friend.

“Marco?” Jean whispers quietly in my ear, his arms slowly wrapping around me to hold my shaking body tight. My eyes are wide and my breaths are rapid, my body shakes and all I can feel is fear. I can hear Jean, I can feel him against now, but I can't seem to respond.

 

    My brain is stuck on the horrid nightmare I had been having. It was horrifying. I don't remember much, only what my brain is flashing through my mind. There's blood, lots and lots of blood, everywhere... There’s dead bodies... dismembered limbs, The whole bodies missing in action, I can hear cries of pain, of agony, of fear, of worry. People crying out, trying to find those missing. People mourning over bodies or whole parts. Some of my friends are among them...

 

     I myself among them. I could see myself, in the dream, crying over something. For the longest time, all I saw was myself, then what I was mourning was shown. Jean... Jeans body, covered in blood. He looks mauled, missing his left leg and a section of his right arm. He’s dead, no doubt about it. Next to his left hand lies something that makes my heart shatter. Writing. He wrote my name in his own blood, probably with his last seconds of life. The rest of the dream disappeared, and it was only Jeans body and myself.

 

     The only sound now was me, crying and shouting. “It's all my fault, If I had gotten here sooner I could have saved him. Jean... I am so, so, so sorry..,” I could hear my own whimpers. When I finally woke up, I thought I was free for half a second, then next thing I know, the images of Jeans dead body are all I can see.

 

    “Marco..? Can you hear me..? The others are still asleep. I know you had a nightmare. I want you to know, whatever it was, it isn't real, and you're okay now. I'm here for you, okay? Try and calm down whenever you're ready... I’ll just be here...” I hear Jean say softly, holding me close to him in attempts to comfort me. I try my best to relax, and push the images away. I try anyway. The second I see Jean clearly, holding onto me, the heart wrenching feeling I felt when I saw him dead in my dream comes crashing back down on me. I wrap my arms around him in return, and squeeze him tight. He sighs in relief, and allows the embrace.

 

  “That's better... Now... I wont ask you about your nightmare. I won't ask any questions at all.. I just want you to feel okay again, so calm down at your own pace. I promise I won't leave you until you tell me it's okay.” I nod, letting out a deep, slow, and shaky breath. Jean slowly lays the two of us back down onto the bed, and holds me close to him, my head buried into his chest. I have a lot of nightmares, but nothing like this has happened before. Nor has anyone really calmed me down like this.

 

    My friends just think it's better to let me get over it on my own, and leave me alone. My mom just tells me it's going to be alright, it's not real, then leaves. Bertholdt is far too nervous to try to console me, so I do my best to assure him I'm okay as soon as possible. No one has ever held me and told me to take my time to adjust back and calm down.. “Okay, I feel a bit better now.” I whisper, letting out a few more deep breaths to try to calm down.

 

    Jean nods, but never lets me go. After a few more minutes of silence, and just Jean holding me close to him, I am almost completely calm again.

 

    “I won't tell you to go back to sleep.. I know that's usually a scary idea. You can stay awake if you want, I’ll stay up with you.” But by the time Jean's sentence is over, my eyes are shut and I'm already drifting off into sleep. Thanks to Jean, I calmed down completely in just a few minutes, and am back to sleep without worry. I probably won't have another bad dream, but if I do, I'm fine, as long as I know Jean's here to calm me down in the end, I'm fine.

 

 

 

 

 

     “Well, well...” A deep chuckle wakes me up from my sleep. I open my eyes slowly. The first thing I see is Jeans ‘not amused’ face. The second thing I see are a very amused Reiner and Sasha, with a giggling Bertholdt, all staring at me. I am confused for a second, and then I realize I'm cuddled against Jean, my head on his shoulder and my arms tightly wrapped around him, and one of his on arms returns it. My face heats up, and out of instinct I hide in his shoulder.

 

    “Cute.” I hear Sasha giggle. Oh God. This is embarrassing. I don't want to tell them about my nightmares. It's sort of embarrassing to have to say that I, a grown man at age twenty three, had such a bad nightmare that another man had to cuddle me until I calmed down.

 

    “Shut up. It's not his fault. I had a really bad nightmare last night, and I ended up clinging to him till I fell asleep and he just held me to calm me down, alright? Get your heads out of the gutter.” I tense up against Jean. He just... lied to them for me? He turned the situation around onto him and away from me. He could sense how embarrassed I was, so he protected me from more embarrassment.

 

    “Aww poor little baby Jean.” I hear Sasha coo. Reiner chuckles a bit. I slowly look up and see them all starting to walk away. Sasha heads to the kitchen, and Reiner drags Bert back to bed.

 

   “Thanks.” I whisper to Jean quietly, but he only nods in return, and starts to get up. “It's 10:30 already.” I hear him groan and my eyes go wide. Shit, shit. 10:30? My shift starts in twenty minutes. Crap. I don't have time to run to my dorm to change and get to the shop. I’ll be late. But I guess it's my only option. I quickly get up. “I'm gonna be late for work. Sorry. Bye.” I rush out quickly, rushing towards the door, but before I can leave, Jean grips my arm.

 

     “Hold up. Berts- Well I guess your guy’s dorm is on the other side of campus. When is your shift?” Jean asks and I pause. Has he been to my dorm before? I would have remembered someone as cute as him being there, maybe he was over when I wasn't home? “11:55.” I answer, and he snorts and shakes his head. “By the time you get to your dorm, change, and get to the shop, you’ll be half an hour late. Here.” He drags me by the wrist over to his closet. Browsing through it, he pulls out a plain black short-sleeve shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

 

  “Get dressed. The coffee shop is only three minutes from here. You're better off this way.” A light blush swarms my cheeks as he places the clothes in my hands, and pushes me towards the bathroom. I just go with it and shut the bathroom door behind me, quickly starting to change. The pants fit well enough, but the shirt just barely fits. It's long enough, it's just my broad shoulders that make it difficult, but the shirt stretches out a bit to adapt to me. By the time I come back out, Jean is fully dressed in a black and white flannel with a white tank top underneath. He's wearing black jeans, and is currently tying on his Docs. I follow his lead, and quickly tie on my Converse. Just as Jean shoves a grey beanie on his hair and stands up, I realize something. Why is he getting dressed too? Is he coming with me?

   “Come on lets go. We got seven minutes to get there.” He said. Well. So I guess he does plan to come along. I mean, I don't have a problem with it, I'm just wondering why he would come with me. Does Jean maybe... Like me? No. Probably not. I work in a coffee shop, he’s going for the coffee, not me. I follow quickly behind him all the way to the shop and sure enough, I check in a minute before 11:55.

 

   “Nice timing.” Connie walks behind me, draping my apron over my head. “Nice shirt too, going for extra tips today?” I look down at the shirt Jean gave me, and notice its a V neck and defines my chest and shoulders very well. I blush yet again, and quickly put on my apron in hopes that it will cover it. Thankfully, the apron is high enough to cover what the shirt exposes.

 

    “Marco. I think your boyfriend is waiting for you to take his order.” Krista giggles, stepping away from the counter and over to me. I look up and sure enough, Jean's waiting at the counter for me. “Hey, What can I get you today?” I smile, stepping up to the counter. Jean's eyes flash down over me and then back up. He gives a slight smile. “I’ll take a green tea today, extra sweet and a small strawberries and cream.” I nod my head, type in the order and he pays. I write his name on both cups, and get to making them while Connie takes the next order. Why is Jean getting two today? Maybe he’s taking the strawberry and cream back to Sasha?

 

    “Here yah go. And thanks again for last night. And this morning... And for getting me to work on time” I mumble yet another apology and he chuckles a bit, shaking his head.

   “I figured were sort of friends now, and I look after my friends.” Friends? Great. Friends. This is where I wanted to be right? I wanted to start off with friends, didnt I? I said that to myself just yesterday. So why do I feel so insecure about it now?

 

    “Yeah, I guess we are.” I nod in agreement, watching as he places a straw into each drink and throwing away the wrappers. “Alright. Well, I’ll see you later, Freckles, I've got to take this drink to it's owner.” I nod slowly as he leaves the shop.

 

    Did he just call me freckles? And why didn't he just say he’s taking it back to Sasha? What does he mean by ‘see you later’? I'm thinking too much again...

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

    “Here yah go, brat. One small strawberries and cream.” I hold out the drink as I sit down on the swing next to my little sister. She smiles at me, and takes it from my hand. “Thanks, Jean.” I nod my head, and get to drinking my Green Tea frap. Usually I only get this when I'm on a date I don't want to be on, so why did it sound so good today?

 

   “So how's college?” Jolene asks me as she swings back and forth.

 

   My little sister is sixteen, and is a lot like me. She’s got a bit of an attitude, and doesn't get along with many people, but she’s really nice with those she is close to. She’s smart and athletic, too. She has my moms light brown hair, but hers is usually pulled back into a braid of some sort, and her eyes are the same golden brown that mine are. Unlike me, she’s my parents pride and joy, but only because I told her to be. When she was seven years old, she could already see the difference between how we were treated. She doesn't like our parents just as much as I do. They're rude and forceful, they don't care about us, the only thing they care about is whether or not we're doing the things they want.

 

    I did, I had great grades, I worked hard and I was in sports but I got into a lot of fights, and even worse then that in their minds: I didn't want to be a doctor. Both my mom and dad are doctors, they're never home because of this, and they also force the career onto me and my sister. That's why I'm studying medicine, even when I hate it, because it keeps my parents off my back, and they continue to fund my college life. Just not as much as I thought they were going to before I told them that I didn't want to be a doctor. After that day, they hardly even look my way.

 

    I told Jolene to just act like she’s their perfect child until she’s old enough, which is next year. She skipped a grade and will actually be graduating at the age of seventeen. I was hoping that if she did this, they would pay her a bit more attention. They do, just not as much as I'd hoped.

 

    “College is great.” Once Jolene is out of high school, she’ll be living with me and going to the same college. I’ve been saving money for that since I was in my senior year of high school. I made sure to put at least twenty dollars a month away, sometimes more, but never less, and I have a little over a thousand dollars now. I have worked a few side jobs, and I do a lot of online art commissions for some money too.

 

    “Sooo anyone you like yet?” She grins at me, and I can't help but laugh. She asks this every time we meet. This time however, I do have something to tell her other then ‘No’. “Yeah, I think so.” She smiles excitedly, as I sip my extra sweet green tea frap. “No way. Who is it? Do I get to meet them? What are they like? What's their name?” She bombards me with questions, and I can't help but roll my eyes at her.

 

    “His name is Marco Bodt. He works at the coffee shop on my campus. He’s really nice, and sweet. He’s kinda funny, too. He’s a little taller than me., with broad shoulders and a nice build. Tan skin, warm chocolate brown eyes and short brown hair.. he smiles the cutest smile like all the time and... And freckles everywhere.” I explain Marco to Jolene and she giggles a bit. “I didn't ask what he looked like, but I did ask if I get to meet him” I sigh a bit. She’s right, she didnt ask for a physical description, I did that all on my own.

 

    “We're just friends, Jo. He doesn't know I like him, and I don't stand a chance with him. I highly doubt you’ll ever meet him until you enter college.” I frown. I really don't have a chance with someone like Marco. He’s so nice and so cute and I'm a such a douche and... Ugh. There's no way a guy like him would like a guy like me, not to mention Marco is probably straight. Hell, for all I know, Marco could have a girlfriend. I could ask Bertholt...

 

     “Awww lame.” Jolene whines in disappointment. That's right, now is not a time to be dawning on Marco, I'm here to hang out with my baby sister as much as I can.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**1 NEW MESSAGE**

**Reiner: Yo. Can you drop by the coffee shop on your way home? Bert is stayn the night again, your bf is welcome to.**

 

**To Reiner: Sure. btw hes NOT my bf.**

 

**From Reiner: Yet***

 

    I groan and shake my head, sliding my phone back into my pocket, ignoring the last text. I really don't want to see Marco again tonight, mostly because of how badly I actually want to see him again. My crush on that boy is growing too quickly for my liking. Why can't they just call Marco? Why do they have to send me to get him? I guess Reiner wouldn't just send me if he didn't have too, I'm just gonna have to trust him.

 

    “Jean?” Marco looks at me, confused, as I step up to the counter. I can see why he would be confused, I do come in here at the same times everyday, and right now isn't one of them. The sun is setting outside, and its quickly getting dark.

   “I got sent to walk you back to the dorms. Berts staying with us again, you're welcome to do the same.” He nods his head a bit.

 

   “Okay, I’ll go back with you, I guess. The shop is about to close, will you wait for me?” 

   I guess I don't have a choice...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a bit longer to write then expected. The next chapter wont take near as long i promise. Dont be afraid to comment, i love them!  
> (I have a new JeanMarco story out, you can check it out if you want. its called "Devil in disguise." Thanks.)


	7. Blind date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reiner is the best match maker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry this is late. My schedule is so tight now, I have hardly been able to write, im so sorry.

 “It's so cold...” I mutter quietly as I walk outside of the coffee shop and towards Jean.  He looks over at me and chuckles a bit.  
“That's because you're wearing a short-sleeved shirt that's a size too small for you in 60 degree weather... Here...” Jean pauses for a second, and then pulls off his black and white flannel and hands it to me. I quickly shake my head to deny it.   
“Then you’ll get cold...” He shrugs, and pushes the flannel at me. I sigh and take it from, slipping it on. Jean tends to wear flannels a size or two too big for him, so the flannel actually fits me quite nicely. It's warm, and it smells like sugar... “Thanks..” Jean nods and starts to walk off in the direction of his dorm building.   
“Wanna stop and grab some pizza?” He offers, glancing in my direction. My stomach grumbles quietly at the mention of food. That's right, I haven't eaten since lunch time...   
“Yeah, pizza sounds good.” I nod and his direction alters slightly, and I follow obediently. Soon we arrived at the small little pizza shack on campus, that's maybe, about, three minutes away from Jeans dorm building. Whys is all the food on this side of campus? All that's near my dorm room is a park and the educational buildings.   
“Toppings?” Jean looks at me when the guy at the counter asks us what sort of toppings we want.  
“Plain cheese is fine,” I answer, and Jean nods, getting us two large plain cheese pizzas and a two litter bottle of Pepsi.   
“Plain cheese is a good idea. Sasha only likes pizza if it has mushrooms and meat on it and Reiner doesn't like plain cheese either. Bertholt is an exception because _he_  doesn't eat entire pizzas on his own before I can put a slice in my mouth like the others do.” I can't help but giggle a bit, because I know it's true. 

 

 

Good news. No nightmares for tonight. Bad news, no cuddles from Jean. We're not even touching, resting on complete opposite sides of his bed. I know I don't have the right to complain, but a guy can hope, can't he? Plus, my 'little' crush on Jean? That's flown out the window. This crush is full blown and is rapidly growing. Ain't nothing stopping it now. Friendship is the last thing I want from Jean at this point. I want to hug him, cuddle him, talk with him, and I want to kiss him. I want to go out on cheesy, stereo typical dates with him. I want to meet his family, spend time with him, and hold his hand as we walk and all that lame dating stuff. I just want him. He’s something I can't have though. Jean Kirstein seems to be off limits.   
       “Just fucking ask him out already.” I hear a familiar voice groan. Is that Sasha? What's she talking about? She couldn't possibly be talking about Reiner and Bertholt. Is she talking to Jean? Is he even awake?   
       “Shut your fucking trap, Potato Girl. We're just friends.” Yup, that's definitely Jean. What are they talking about...? Ask who out? Who are just friends? They couldn't possibly be talking about me... could they? No, of course not. Jean is probably straight. I'm sure she said ‘he’ though... Okay, no. Knock it off, Marco. All you're doing is getting your hopes up when you won't be able to reach 'em.   
       “Whatever. I don't know how you're denying the fact that he is literally exactly your type. You obviously like him to some degree, give it a shot.” I hear Sasha argue, followed by a grunt. The bed space beside me is suddenly empty, and the sound of a door opening and closing in the distance. Jean's perfect type huh? There really is no way there talking about me then...  

 

 

  
       “What? No.” I groan, shaking my head at Bertholt as I sit down on my bed.   
       “Sorry, Marco.. Reiner doesn't give up when it comes to his ‘Match-Making’. He says he knows a guy who's looking for a boyfriend at the moment, and that you're his perfect type or something. He won't stop 'till he gets you to go...” Bert smiles a bit apologetically at me as I sigh. Reiner apparently wants to set me up on a blind date, which is like, a huge no. I don't do blind dates, not to mention it's pointless anyways due to my massive crush on Jean. Reiner won't give up though. He's messaged Bert the word ‘Please’ exactly thirty seven times since we got back to our dorm.   
       “Fine. When and where?” I give in. What will it hurt anyway, it's not like I’ll actually have any interest in this guy. No harm done if I go on a stupid blind date. Maybe I can use it as an excuse, and text Jean to save me like I had to do for him. That I would like...   
       “Reiner says the guy will be at the coffee shop in half an hour, back table, wearing a grey beanie.”  I nod my head, and stand up. Half an hour huh? I might be a little late, but whatever. It's no one I'm trying , or really want, to impress. I can settle with a plain dark green shirt and jeans. Alright. Off to the coffee shop I go..,

       I’ll skip on a coffee for now. If the date's not okay with me, I can go get a coffee, and text Jean to come save me, or, if he can't, I can have Connie do it. Alright... Back tables, grey beanie... I don't see a grey beanie... Wait, is that...?  
       “Jean?” I call out his name, and sure enough, his head turns to look at me, and he raises an eyebrow. Why is Jean here? It's not his normal time...? I head to his table, and slide into the seat across from him. Only then do I notice whats in his hand. A grey beanie. “Jean.. Did Reiner set you up on a blind date too?” It takes Jean a second, then he narrows his eyes at me, and begins to cuss.   
       “God fucking dammit, I am so gonna kick his ass...” I can't help but giggle a little bit. Jean is the guy Reiner set me up with. Oh dear... “Well... I guess I won't be needing a fake boyfriend for this date...”  He sighs out, sitting up a bit straighter. I guess Jean was thinking the same thing I was earlier...   
       “I was thinking about having to text you to get me out of this too. Guess I can't pull that card, now can I?” I joke, and he grins.   
       “Nah, you can still use that card, I’ll come rescue you if you feel this date's not going well.” That makes no sense, but whatever, I’ll let it slide for now.   
       “So then I guess you're the guy whose looking for a boyfriend and I just so happen to be his perfect match?” I raise an eyebrow, just letting my thoughts spill out. I don't even know what I'm doing right now.  I'm just trying to not look so awkward and nervous, because I'm on a date with Jean, my crush, on accident.   
       “So that's what he told you to get you here? Huh, well, it's not a complete lie, you are my exact type.”  My face heats up, and a large smile tugs onto my lips. The conversation with Sasha this morning, was that really about me then? Wait, does that mean Jeans gay? Bi?    
       “I was under the impression you were straight.” Is the way I manage to get that thought out into the open air.   
       “Pansexual.” He shakes his head, then gestures to me, meaning its my turn to tell my sexuality.   
       "Gay.” He nods his head, and taps his fingers on the table. We sit in silence for a few seconds before he speaks up.   
       “No coffee for you today?”  Why didn't I get coffee? Oh right...   
       “I was going to use that as an excuse to get away from the table and call my fake boyfriend for help if I wasn't liking my date.” He lets out a silent laugh and grins, standing up.  
       "You still want to use that card, or you want me to get you something?” I guess in Jean's own way, he’s asking if I'm cool with this date...   
       “No, I don't think I’ll need to use it... I’ll take a Green tea frap.” He smiles and nods, leaving to get my drink. Jesus Christ. Okay. I need to let this sink in. Jean. I am on a date with Jean. My crush. He's totally cool with it, and he even admitted that I'm his type. What is his type anyway? Maybe I’ll ask him later... Probably not. What do I do in a situation like this? Do I flirt? I don't know how to flirt. Oh dear, this is gonna be a failure. I want to make a good impression, this is my chance, isn't it? I have a chance to get Jean to like me in the same way I like him. This is my chance to have those things I thought of earlier.  I just don't know how to get there...  
       “Here you go. One green tea frap.” Jean hands me my drink, and sits back down into his chair.   
       “Thanks. I’ll pay you back later.” Jean just looks at me like I'm stupid for offering to pay him back, so I raise an eyebrow.   
       “Isn't there some rule that you pay for your date?”  I roll my eyes as I take a sip of my frap. That's so old fashioned and stupid. I'm more then capable of paying for my own drink. If it was anyone else, I would say no, and insist I pay them back, but I don't think I can say no to Jean.   
        “I have to get to work in about thirty minutes...”  I sigh when I realize the current time. Jean grins a bit, and leans onto the table to smile at me.   
       “That's fine, as long as there's a second date coming up soon.” My face heats up in embarrassment. Did he just just as me out? He just asked me out. I nod my head slowly. I don't know what I did, but I must have done _something_  right during this short little blind date of perfection if he's asking me out for a second one all on his own... 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

  What the fuck did I just do? I’ll tell you what I did. I grew some guts and asked Marco out. I don't even know how. I've been trying to act cool and calm since he showed up. I've been trying as hard as I could to not have a heart attack. What the fuck am I supposed to do for this second date though? Where do I take him? What do I say to him? How do I tell him that I really, really like him? Does he even like me back? What if he doesn't like me back? What if he's just pretending so that he doesn't hurt my feelings? Oh god. Okay, breathe Jean. I need to calm the fuck down and get some advice... Who the fuck do I ask about these things anyway...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its late, but i hope you enjoyed it anyway. Dont be afraid to comment, i love feedback.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the begging of that promised second date. Also, yes, i made up the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Movie is made up, and uh, yeah, enjoy. Part two of this chapter will come tomorrow.

 “You're stupid for stressing out over this, I'm sure he really likes you, okay, just type dammit,”  Jolene scolds me when my fingers begin to hesitate against my phone's screen. I let out a groan of annoyance, and quickly type out my question, and click send before I can regret it, which is instantly after it's gone and I can't bring it back. Fuck. It's not my fault I'm so nervous either. It's Marco's fault for being so.. so...  _himself_. If he wasn't so sweet, and cute and pure I wouldn't- okay well I probably wouldn't even like him in the first place if he wasn't the way he is...

Before I know it, my phone vibrates in my hand, causing my to jump a bit. He replied quick. That's a scary thought. I mean, how long does it take to type no? Right. I didn't really ask much of a ‘Yes or No’ question though... 

 

To : Marco<3 : So, about that second date...

From : Marco<3 : What about it?

 

        I take a quick breath, and glance at my sister. She nods her head to me, and gestures with her hand for me to go on and reply back. 

        Also, if your wondering, The heart at the end of his name was Reiner's doing, not mine. 

 

To : Marco: Well, uh... Want to do that thing tomorrow?

To : Marco: I meant will you go out on a date with me tomorrow? 

 

        I am quick to fix my mistake, I mean, I really fucked up the wording that first time. That's not exactly a good way to ask someone out... 

        I really hope he says yes. I'm so nervous, I can feel the knots twisting in my stomach. This is absolutely ridiculous, I haven't felt this nervous since high school.   

 

From : Marco : I would love to!

To : Marco: Great. I’ll pick you up at your dorm at 6 tomorrow? 

From : Marco : That works for me.

 

        I let out a sigh of relief and type out a quick response, and turn my head to look at Jolene, and give her a big grin. She smiles back at me. 

        “Nice job. I told you he would say yes, you big baby.” I chuckle a bit, and nod. I am a big baby. I can't believe how nervous I got over of texting Marco to ask him to go out with me. Now I just have to figure out what to wear... and where to go... and what to do when we get there. Hopefully I can make a good impression and maybe, just maybe, it's good enough to where he’s willing to go for a third date...

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

        “What do I wear? You know Jean better then I do, come on, help me out Bert,” I whine, giving up after staring at the inside of my closet for half an hour.  I have a second date with Jean today. I took an hour long shower, and now I'm trying to find a decent outfit to wear. I don't even know where he's taking me though. It's so frustrating. I'm giving up, and I'm looking to Bertholt for help, since he has just been watching me panic and pull out random clothing pieces for the evening. 

        “It's kinda cold today, and it will get colder so wear something without sleeves, that way if you get cold, he’ll give you his jacket or flannel, wear something that showcases your good body, that way he won't be able to resist admiring, but will also possibly feel the need to make sure anyone else who eyes you too, knows you're his. Wear a light color, I suggest green. Wear a necklace of some sort, it draws attention to the neck. That is all.”  I raise an eyebrow at my roommate as he instructs me. How the heck does he know this stuff, and how does he know this will work? Why would I want to purposely bring his attention to my neck and body?  Wait... Oh...

        “Don't look at me like that, I know Jean pretty well, and just trust me, alright?” I sigh, and nod my head, re-going through my wardrobe with his suggestions in mind. I don't have a choice but to trust him, I mean, after all, he has known Jean a lot longer than I have, and knows a lot more about him too. 

        With Bert's words in mind, I pick out a pair of grey jeans, a faded green tank top, and my normal black converse. I look threw my  jewelery and pull out a simple, brown, braided thread necklace and tie it around my neck. Its just a bit longer then the base of my neck.  

Bert nods in approval when I step out of the bathroom, my hair freshly combed, and my teeth lightly brushed. I smile happily and grab my wallet of my desk, and shove it in my pocket, along with my dorm room key. Grabbing my phone and checking the time, I take a sharp breath. Jean should be here any minute now. I'm really starting to feel nervous now. I hope this goes well. I really, really hope this goes well. I really hope he likes me, and I really hope this isn't the last date. 

        A minute later, there's a knock at the door, and I jump a bit. Okay, here we go, breath Marco. It's Jean, just Jean... You know, just Jean, the incredibly hot, funny, talented, and amazing guy that I have a huge, out of control, massive crush on. That's all...

        “Hey, uh, you ready?” I open up the door, and there stands Jean, wearing a Plain grey shirt, black jeans, and his black docs, with a black leather jacket to top it all off. His hair is a bit messy, but he looks really good. 

        “Yeah sure.” I turn my head, and smile at Bertholt. “By Bert, see you later.” I give him a small wave, and turn back to Jean. Just as I turn back, I see Jean eying my body, which results in a gulp of nervousness. He looks up at me, and smiles a bit, stepping aside so that I can exit, and closes the door. 

        “Have fun!” Bert waves back, just as he close the door. 

        “So... Where are we going tonight?” I ask suspiciously as I walk along side him. He hasn't said told me what the plans are yet. I mean, I'm not thinking he’s gonna take me to the woods and kill me or anything like that. God no. I'm just wondering why he wouldn't have told me by now. 

        “This is going to sound really lame, and cliche and what not, but I thought I'd take you to the movies, and then out to dinner?”  He shrugs, looking away from me as we step out of the dorm building. Even though he isn't facing me, I can still slightly see the red in his cheeks. He’s blushing, how cute. 

        “You know, I think I like lame and cliche.” I grin as he looks back at me, his face heating up even more. Dear god he’s adorable. 

 

        “Oh my god it's freezing in here.” I whisper harshly as we take are seats in the theater, wrapping my arms around myself for warmth. Jean sighs quietly, but offers me a soft smile as he places our popcorn and drink down and shrugs his leather jacket off, placing it over my shoulders. Instantly I'm enveloped by warmth, and I can't help but smile happily up at Jean. 

        “You don't have to, you’ll get cold to, but... Thank you...” Jean nods as a response, and sits down next to me, placing the popcorn in his lap, and the drink in the middle of us. Curse the arm bar that separates us... I mean, I could always move the soda and put it up, but I don't know if Jean's okay with that... I don't want to freak him out or anything... 

        “What movie is this again?” I whisper quietly to Jean as the movie begins. I had know idea what any of the movies were when we came in, so I just let Jean pick. 

        “Thunderstorm. That new, cheesy looking horror movie.” He explains to me. I nod my head a bit, and move my attention on to the screen. I don't really care for horror movies. I actually don't like most modern day movies, regardless of genre. I think the last movie I really liked was the Disney, well, Pixar, movie ‘Brave’. 

 

        Twenty five minutes into the movie, and it already sucks. The acting is pretty bad, I’ve seen high school freshmen put on better plays than this, the story line is stupid, the effects are decent, I guess, and oh my god, the love story. Why is there a love story. Horror movies aren't supposed to have love stories. People are dying, there is no time to fall in love with your sister's boyfriend when she was just brutally murdered. Second, when there is a crazy murderer that you know is in the area, and that just killed your best friend, its not a good idea to have sex at night, in an upstairs classroom that's unlocked and only has one door and no windows, while there's a storm going on outside. Seriously, no one is that stupid. This is just 30 minutes in. Three people have already died in unrealistic, gruesome ways, and it's even extremely obvious who the killer is. 

        “Yo Marco... This movie sucks.” Jean leans over, and whispers in my ear as I reach out to get some popcorn. I chuckle a bit, and nod in agreement. This movie really does suck. 

        “Hey Marco, can I pull some more cliche moves?” I raise an eyebrow at him, but shrug. I don't really know what he’s gonna do, but it can't be bad right? This thought is proven true after Jean places the drink to the side, and pushes up the arm rest that lays between us, then he does a long, fake sarcastic yawn while stretching out his arms, then plops one of them down around my shoulders. He turns and looks at me to give me this huge, goofy grin that makes my heart flutter. I silently giggle and lean into his side, making his arm squeeze me tighter to him. What a dork. A cheesy, cliche dork, but I wouldn't have him any other way...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My schedule leaves zero time for writing during the week, so i dont have a chance to get to it till fridays, like today. Part two will be in tomorrow. And for those of you who read my other JeanMarco storys, The Devil in disguise has an update tomorrow, and the first two chapters of the sequel to Partners, titled "Say the words" will be up as well. Enjoy, and dont be afraid to comment!


	9. Second date part two of two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second part of the second date. For some reason, this is all in Jeans point of view.

 

 

 

 

“Next time, I'm picking the movie.”  Marco jokes, nudging my side a bit as we step out of the theater. I nod my head in agreement. That movie really did suck. 

        “Good idea.” I lead him over to Reiner's truck, which he insisted I borrow for this date. Reiner was so excited when I told him I was going on a second date with Marco, it's kinda ridiculous. 

        “So, where are we going to eat?” He questions as I pull open the passenger side door for him, and he hoists himself up and into the truck. 

        “I was thinking we could go to the steak house down the road?”  I shut his door once he’s in and go around, getting in on the driver's side. 

        “Steak house is fine by me.” He smiles happily at me as I start the truck and the CD I had put in earlier instantly starts playing again. 

        “Steak house it is.” 

 

        “Don't do that. I have money, Marco. Get whatever you like. I promise its okay.” I have to gently scold Marco for trying to be a cheap tonight. You know, trying to go with plain water when I know he wants a Shirley temple, trying to find the cheapest idea on the menu. I don't want him to do that though, whatever he wants I’ll get it for him, I want to treat him well. 

        “Are you sure?” He mumbles quietly as our waitress stands at the edge of are table, ‘patiently’ waiting for our drink orders. 

        “I'm positive. Don't worry about price.” He lets out a quiet sigh, but nods, accepting his defeat, and goes on to buy his Shirley Temple. I myself order a coke, then our waitress leaves. 

        “Sodas are just so expensive, I can always get a water with extra lemon and make lemonade with that and the sugar packets on the table for nothing.” I chuckle quietly, knowing that I do the exact same thing. Usually I'm not willing to pay for a soda, but Marco is a special occasion. 

        “Maybe next time we can make fake lemonade but I think a second date calls for something a little special, don't you think?” I say, hinting at the idea of a possible third date. He gives me a sweet smile that makes his eyes look as bright as the stars, and make his freckles look even more adorable then they usually do... Oh my god.  Do you hear me? I sound like such a sap, this is ridiculous, he should not make me feel this way... But he does...  No one just thinks like that over a simple crush, oh no, I am head over heels for Mr.Bodt. Now, if only he liked me back, it's a painful thought that he could always say no, but at least now there's this little spark of hope in me that he may just feel the same way, at least in some degree...

        “Here's your Shirley Temple, and your Coke, and the Bread sticks. Are you guys ready to order?” Our waitress comes back, placing our drinks down in front of us, and pulling out her pad of paper, ready to take our meal orders. I glance at Marco, wondering if he is decided, and he nods his head. 

        “Alright, I’ll take the pepper corn stake, medium rare, with the house fries, and a Caesar salad.” She nods her head a bit, scribbling down my order quickly, then turning her attention to Marco. 

        “And what could I get for you?” She asks kindly, He scans the menu one more time, double checking his choice. 

        “I’ll take the rib-eye stake, with a side, blue cheese salad, and mashed potatoes.” She nods, writes down his order, then glances back up at him. 

        “How do you want that cooked?” She asks and he shrugs a bit. 

        “Medium rare is fine.” She nods her blonde head again, writing it down, and smiling up at us. 

        “Alright, I'll get those to you as soon as I can, your salads will be out soon, and if you need anything, let me know.” And then, she’s gone again. 

        “Soooo... What do people talk about on dates?” I ask, reaching for a bread stick, and ripping off a piece to eat. Marco giggles a bit, and god dammit his giggle is the cutest thing ever. 

        “Well I guess we just get to know each other better? You know, if that's cool with you?” I smile a bit, and nod my head. I'm not one for talking about myself, but if Marco wants to know something about me, well then I’ll tell him. 

 

 

“So you have a little sister named Jolene who is sixteen, you have plans for her to live with you once she graduates in a few months. Your parents let you name her when you were seven and you named her after the Dolly Parton song 'Jolene’.” Marco laughs at me as he cuts his steak into little pieces, and a blush heats up in my cheeks.  When I was seven, Dolly Parton was one of my favorite singers okay? Shut up. 

        “Don't diss Dolly man.” He giggles more, and nods his head. 

        “Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just think that's really cute. Okay, so your parents are both doctors, and they make like, a lot of money. They are really pushing you and your sister to be doctors as well, and because you told them you don't want to go into medicine, they don't treat you as well as they do your sister. They are hardly ever home so you are constantly checking in on Jolene to make sure she’s doing okay. Your grandpa was an artist and that’s where your love for art came from, and he taught you everything you know. Sasha has been your best friend since you were born. You have known Reiner and Bertholt for years and you met Connie your freshman year of college. Both your parents are from France, they moved here three months before you were born, on May second. You just really love coffee, you don't know why, and you really love sweet things too. You really love marine life, yet you're afraid of the ocean. You don't know what you want to be, so long as it includes art, and you really love meat.” He continues on with summarizing everything I've told him so far as he eats, and I nod. He got it all right. That's everything I told him. He told me quite a bit too, though.

        “You're twenty three, your birthday is the twelfth of January. Your dad is a photographer and your mom is a teacher, she teaches first grade. You have a seventeen year old brother named Mathias. You like going to help out your mom in her classroom, and you really like working with the kids. You're studying literature and theater. You want to be a high school teacher. You have a really good relationship with both your parents, and your brother. You’ve known Connie since your second year of High school. Your best friend is your cousin Ymir, and her girlfriend Krista, who I actually know pretty well. You used to hate your freckles, though I myself find them adorable. You really like tea. You take a photography class since it's what your dad does for a living, and you thought it would be nice to surprise him with that. You work at the coffee shop to help your parents pay for college, though you did get a good amount of scholarship money due to your amazing grades.You get a lot of bad dreams, you're afraid of snakes, and you really like to watch the sunrise.” I restate what he told me about himself through bites of my food. He nods, smiling a bit, a light red color in his cheeks.  Probably from the little bit about me finding his freckles adorable that slipped out. 

        “You're a pretty good listener.” I grin as he sarcastically complements me. 

        “Well I try. How's your steak?” He nods happily as he places another piece into his mouth. 

        “It's really good, and your's?” I nod my head, cut off a piece, and stick it on my fork, offering it to him. 

        “It's pretty good. Tell you what, I’ll let you taste mine if I can get a bite of yours.” He smiles at me, and bites the piece of stake of my fork, and chews, then cuts of a piece of his own steak and holding it out for me. I do the same as him, biting it off his fork. 

        "That is good.” I agree once the piece of meat is down my throat.

        “Want another piece?” He offers, already begging to cut of another piece for me. I smile at him, but shake my head. 

        “It was delicious, but I’ve got my own steak to eat, you go on and enjoy.” He smiles and nods, eating the little piece he had originally cut off for me. 

 

 

        “I can't believe I let you pay for the movie, the snacks, and dinner... That was a lot of money,” Marco whines as I walk him up to his dorm room, and I smile, chuckling a bit. My arm is wrapped around his shoulder, which is still covered by my leather jacket. 

        “And I'll continue to pay for you.” He looks up at me, a little hopeful smile shines against the mass of freckles. 

        “Does that mean there’s a third date?” He questions. I blush, and pull my arm away from his shoulder to rub the back of my neck awkwardly, just as we reach his dorm. 

        “If you want to, yeah, I’d love a third date.” I admit, my face is probably heating up to an even darker shade of red. That cute little smile of his widens, and he nods his head excitedly. 

        “I would love a third date too,” he agrees. My heart skips a beat as he turns and unlocks his door. He agreed. He agreed, and I’ve got a third date. Third dates are good, third dates are great, third dates are the dates that turn dates into dating. That's perfect, but also really scary. What the heck do I for a third date? How am I going to officially be his boyfriend? Dear god, now I need some real advice. 

        "Thanks for today, I had a lot of fun. I guess I’ll see you at the cafe tomorrow... So... Goodnight, Jean.” Marco quickly breaths out, leaning forward, and pressing his lips against my cheek, before disappearing into his dorm, leaving me to stand in the hallway like a lovestruck idiot. 

“Good night, Marco...” I mumble quietly, after a few seconds, then I start to walk down the hallway, out of the dorm building, and back to my own place. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. Next one is coming soon, i promise. Dont be afraid to comment!


	10. Approval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its Jeans sisters Birthday, Marco wants to tag along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know i've been gone for a few months now, and im so sorry. I got really busy, and my internet shut off. But its back! I have tons of chapters to upload for you guys. I also now have a Tumblr and a Twitter that you guys can follow, and it will have plenty of updates. Things like sneak previews, updates, heads ups, ideas, plenty of stuff like that, or you could message or tweet me with comments, ideas, suggestions, comments maybe even art that you might have?. So check them out if you want.  
> Twitter is @BmaybeB  
> Tumblr is 3wordstopartners
> 
> Hope you guys are ready for plenty of chapters these next few days! Glad to be back!

    “Soooo, how did it go?” The second i walk into the dorm room, i am bombarded with questions from both Reiner, and Sasha. I groan, and shut the door behind me, kick off my boots, and begin to strip down to boxers, ready for a good night of sleep and pleasent dreams, and not so ready for a Q&A session.

   “Wont kiss and tell huh?” “Thats a shame.” “Wont you even tell us if theres a third date?” “No, i want to know if he kissed the boy.” “I honestly want to know to, so how bout it Jean? Did yah kiss the boy?” “Give us the details man, we deserve to know” “Aww dont keep us in the dark, Jean. Spill.” I groan and flop down onto my bed, pulling the blanket up me until it wraps around my shoulders. These two, i swear to god they’re so nosey. I love them though, somehow.

    “If you must freakn know, it went great, there is a promised third date, and he kissed my cheek. that is it. Im tired now. Good night.” My eyes are shut, as i try to sink into sleep, but that doesnt stop me from being well aware of the smirk on Reiners face, or the fact that Sasha is struggling to contain her giggles and squels of happiness. God those two are so predictable.

 

 

      “So the date went well?” My sisters voice hums out on the other side of the telephone. I sigh, and shake my head. She called me this early, just to ask that question. She couldnt just text me? I mean, its not like i wasnt already awake. It was hard to fall back asleep after Reiners Jazz music went off and the muscled beast began his daily work out at three in the morning.

    “Yes, Jo. The date went good. There’s even a third date planned.” I put my cell phone on speaker phone, setting it on the bed beside me as i go back to trying to get my pants on. Dont judge okay, i just got out of the shower, do you know how hard it is to get clothes on a wet body? And yes, i did need to shower. Unlike Reiner, i work out at a normal time of day, then go on with getting ready.

   “Thats great! Im happy for you!” I can practically hear the smile in her voice as Jolene talks. I smile a bit as i button up my jeans, and slip my black leather belt on, before trying to find a shirt for the day. My sis goes on, asking for bits of detail about the date, and i oblige. I tell her all about the lame movie we saw, the dinner, what we talked about, what i told him and what he told me, i told her about the ride back, and the kiss on the cheek. We talk the entire time that im getting ready. I have a really great relationship with my sister. We tell each other everything. We are each others only family, You know, With are Parents never around, We’ve never met are grandparents, are Aunts and Uncles are all really mean, rich, and stuck up and dont like us very much, Sasha, Reiner, and Bert treat us like family, and their parents love us to, thats the closest to family we have, otherwise, its just us. So we tend to stick together like crazy glue.

    “Alright. Im off, and you should be to. Have a good day at school, alright? I’ll see you Sunday.” She says a god bye back, and we hang up as head out the door, my bag over my shoulder, on my way to the coffee shop before my classes start. Saturday is Jolenes birthday. Are parents are gonna spend the whole day with her, im not welcome, so im going to spend the day after with her. Im not to happy that i dont get to see my baby sister till the day after her birthday, but i wont complain, at least their doing something for her on her birthday thats not leaving an envelope with a hundred dollars in it and a cake.

   “Off to the coffee shop? If your not to busy shoving your tounge down Marcos throat, grab me a coffee would you?” Reiner’s voice stops me at the door and i groan. I dont want to turn around cause i know he is making some sort of stupid face, or crude gesture, cause that is just how Reiner is. “Reiner. It was just a kiss on the cheek.” I correct him with a sigh. I know he knows it was just a cheek kiss, and i get that he is just teasing me but still, i feel the need to correct him.

    “Yeah, I know. Seriously though, Jean, you need to make things official with that boy.” I sigh my head, and nod before leaving the room. Honestly, i dont need Reiner to tell me that, i already know that. Its something i really want to do, Something i need to do. I just dont know when.. I also want it to be perfect. I want to have a great third date, then at the end of it, ask him in the best way possible. I want it to be special.. I need a day and a plan.. Its been about a week since my last date with Marco.

  Like usual though, i have seen him everyday, twice a day when i went into the coffee shop. However, as each day went by, i was going in less and less for coffee, and more and more for Marco. I come in a little bit earlier, or stay a little bit longer so i can hang out with him before his shift starts, or during his brake. Today being Saturday, as well as my sisters birthday, so she’s busy with my parents all day, i have a completely free schedule, and decided to wait for Marco to get off work so that we can hang out for a bit today. Are third date is tonight to, i asked him yesterday, and he instantly agreed. I have absolutely everything planed out, and its going to be perfect, the only thing left is to just hope he says yes.

  “Hey. Thanks for waiting.” Marco greets me with a happy smile as he walks towards are table, finally finishing up his shift. “I didnt mind.” I assure him. He nods, and slides into the seat across from me, and hoists a small, light purple gift bag onto the table, and pushes it towards me.

   “Todays Jolenes birthday right? Give this to her for me, when you see her tomorrow, would you?” I stare stuned at the bag for a few seconds, then at Marco for a few more before i manage to process thought into word. “You got my little sister, who you have never met before, a birthday present?” I gape. His cheeks heat up a little, and he looks away in embarrassment. Its the sweet shit like this that he does that has me falling for him harder and harder with each passing day.

   “Yeah.. Its not much, just a twenty dollar gift card to a craft store, and Steven Kings book, The Green Mile. Its just..You’ve told me so much about her that it makes me feel like i actually know her, and then i sort of felt like i should get her a present.. Even if i havnt met her yet..” I really just want to lean across the table and kiss his stupid, cute blushing face. Why must he be so fucking sweet, and pure, and perfect, and not even notice it... “Thats really ni-” Before i can finish the rest of my sentence, my phone begins to rapidly vibrate in my pocket.

                 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

    “Hello? Jolene?” I watch as Jean pulls his phone free from his phone,he glances at me apologetically, before answering who im guessing is his little sister. I smile as i watch him. From the way Jean talks about his little sister, you can tell that he loves her more then anyone else in the world, and i find it adorable. He talks about her all the time were together. He often stops himself, and apologizes, but i really dont mind it. I think its cute.

   “What? What do you mean?” Jeans smile quickly disapears as he talks to his sister, there is a long pause before he talks again, while i just stare in curiosity. “Are you fucking serious. Im so sorry Jo, i knew i shouldnt have trusted them. Give me a couple minutes, alright? I’ll be right there for you okay. Please dont cry,baby, okay? Im on my way okay, just a few minutes.” I raise an eyebrow, Jean hangs up the phone, and quickly stands up.

  “My asshole parents fucking forgot today was Jolenes birthday, she wolk up and there gone, she just got a text saying they forgot and that they’ll get her a cupcake or something later on. She’s crying right now, im so sorry, i have to go to her, Im sorry, i have to go get Reiners car keys, i’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Jean rushes out his words, obviously in slight panic. I quickly get up and place my hand gently on his shoulder to keep him from running, and hopefully calm him down a bit. “I’ll go with you, okay? We can take my car alright? Dont you have presents for her?” He takes a deep breath and nods his head. I smile a bit.

   “Alright, go get them, i’ll meet you in the street in front of your building okay.” He nods, and just like that he’s gone. Jean really loves his sister, he’s probably the best big brother around. I understand why he’s panicking over this, i would do the same if it was my own little brother. I grab are drinks of the table, as well as the gift i had gotten his sister, and head out to the parking lot, and get into my car. Its just a little silver sedan. By the time i pull in front of Jeans building, he is just barely running out of the building, and towards my car. He quickly climbs into the passenger side, two gift bags in hand, and clips on his seat belt.  

  “Thank you so much for doing this, Marco. I owe you one.” I shake my head at him. Jean doesnt seem to understand that im doing this because i truly want to. “Dont worry about it, now tell me were i am going.” As soon as i get directions, were on are way, as fast as i can possibly go without breaking speed limit.

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

         “Jolene!?” I call out my little sisters name the second Marco and I are in the doorway of my parents house. “Jean!” I hear foot stops being rushed down the stairs as my name is called out. In a moment, my little sister Jolene jumps into my arms. A smile instantly pulls onto my lips a i hold her back, and kiss her gently on the head. “Happy birthday kiddo.” I mumble to her quietly. She slowly pulls away, and smiles up at me. Then she freezes, her eyes flicker to look behind me, and she raises an eyebrow in confusion, then, after a split second, she realizes something.

    “Is that Marco?” She whispers, and i give a nod. Her smile widens, as i turn to look at Marco. He stands in the plain white doorway, awkwardly looking around, not sure what to say.

  “Marco, this is my little sister, Jolene. Jo, this is my good friend, Marco.” Marco blushes, nervously smiles, and sticks out his hand. “Oh, hello, its nice to meet you.” stutters out, Jolene looks at me, giggles a bit, and shakes marcos hand. “Hi, Marco.” He smiles at her, then his eyes go wide as he remembers something.

   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   "Oh, uh, Happy birthday. This one if from Jean, this is from me.” I pick up the birthday bags from the floor, and hold them out for her. She pauses, and looks at me confused for a good thirty seconds, the looks at jean, then back at me before she slowly stutters out. “You... You got me a present?” She asks carefully, almost as if she were afraid of my answer. I smile down at her, and nod. “Of course i did, Its your birthday isnt it?” Again, she looks at her big brother, then back at me. Jean just stands there, observing silently with a slight smile on his face.

   “But we’ve never met before?” She says it more like a question then a statement. “Why would you get someone you’ve never met a present?” I dont see why its such an odd thing for me to get her a present.. Even if we are technically strangers.. “Well you see, i spend a lot of time with Your brother, and he talks about you allot, its really sweet. He tells me all sorts of things about you that i felt like i already knew you, and i just couldt help but like you from the things he told me. There was no way i wouldnt buy you a present.” I tell her the honest truth, like i did with Jean. She stares blankly at me yet again, but after a second, I find her tightly hugging me. I look down at her head barried into my chest, then over to Jean, who just gives me this cute, all knowing smile, and makes a gesture for me to hug back. So i do. After a good second or two, the embrace ends.

   “Thank you.” She whispers quietly to me as she releases me from her grip. I cant help but question why shes making such a big deal of me getting her a present. Then i realize what Jean told me. She’s lucky if her parents leave her a card on her birthday, let alone a present. She doesnt even see her own parents on her own birthday half the time. It must be amazing in her own eyes for a man she has never met before to care enough about her to get her a gift on her birthday. How sad.. “Of course.. Now how bout you open them up, and we’ll see what we can do about a special birthday feast.” She nods up at me with excitement, taking ahold of her brothers arm, and dragging him over to the living room couch.

    As they walk, i catch her whisper to Jean. “I like him.” Thats not the big surprise, what shocks me, is when Jean whispers back. “So do i.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know i've been gone for a few months now, and im so sorry. I got really busy, and my internet shut off. But its back! I have tons of chapters to upload for you guys. I also now have a Tumblr and a Twitter that you guys can follow, and it will have plenty of updates. Things like sneak previews, updates, heads ups, ideas, plenty of stuff like that, Or you could message or tweet me there, with suggestions, comments, ideas you may have, possible art? I love to hear from you guys! So check them out if you want.  
> Twitter is @BmaybeB  
> Tumblr is 3wordstopartners
> 
> Hope you guys are ready for plenty of chapters these next few days! Glad to be back! Feel free to comment!


	11. Damn him..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean and Marco prepare a little birthday dinner for his sister..

    “Pass me the pepper, please, Jean?” I ask for Jean to pass me some seasonings, as my hands are currently holding chicken breasts. Jean and I decided it would be easier just to cook her a special meal instead of taking her out. So, we scrounged what we could out of his fridge and freezer, and got to work. Im seasoning the chicken breasts we found in freezer, Jeans working on heating up some steamed vegetables. Its a quick meal, but it will at least be a decent one. Jean smiles at me as he places the container of pepper next to me.

   Since we started cooking, Jean hasnt stopped smiling. I dont really get why, but i dont seem to care. I love seeing him this happy, its absolutely adorable. I mean, i wish he could be this happy all the time, but the problem with that thought, is the one that follows after it: ‘I want to be the one to make him that happy’. I know my feelings for Jean escalated rather quickly. I mean, one second, it was simple curiosity, and the next, curiosity has flown out the window, and romantic intention flies in and hits me upside the head. Its odd how feelings like this can spark so quickly, but i guess this just happen that way sometimes. Its not stopping anything though. Every time i see Jean, even just for a minute, I like him more, and more. Im slowly falling for him, slowly but surely, and i am not complaining.

   “Chickens almost done.” I announce, checking on the three chicken breasts in the pan. “Vegetables are done to. Should we get to work on the cake?” He asks, though i know its not really a question once he goes over and picks up the box of cake mix. Apparently, Jolene loves to bake, so we were lucky to find some cake mix, and a container of chocolate frosting. I also found some strawberries in the fridge, not very many, but enough. “Sure.” I agree with a nod of my head, and get out a few of the needed things. Once we have the liquids added into the powder, Jean stirs it a bit, and then we add two eggs, and he again, stirs it. While he did that, i went and checked on the chicken, make sure it wasnt burnt or anything.

  “Hey, Marco? Taste this for me will you?” Jean calls me over, holding out the whisk with a bit of cake batter on it, i reach out my hand to put some on my finger, but then i freeze. Jeans smirking. Why is he smirking? When i freeze, Jean seems to notice, and next thing i know, there is cake batter on my cheek. Thats why he was smirking..

   “Jean!” I whine, trying to clean myself of the batter. He just chuckles away, very proud of his evil doings. That butt-head. I think i’ve got all the cake batter now, so i toss my napkin into the trash, and playfully glare at Jean, while he just grins back. Look at him, and his cute, smug face. Its not fair.

  “Hold on, you missed a spot.” Jean’s grin disappears, and is replaced by an innocent smile as he leans over, and licks my cheek.

 “HUh!” I gasp and he pulls away, not really sure why i made such an odd noise. My face heats up, probably making me look like a dang tomato, as i pull my hand up to cover my cheek. Did Jean just lick me!? Oh my god. He did, he just liked cake batter of my cheek, oh my god, why. He, probably realizing what he did that has me so.. uh.. flustered.. goes back to his demon grin. His tounge pokes out of his mouth, and slowly glides across his lower lip in a rather.. seductive manner...

  “Delicious.” He mutters. And i think i just went from Tomato, to a red hot pepper on fire. Dear god, why would he do that. Why. From there, he goes back into his fit of laughter, then just continues on with mixing the cake, and pouring it into a pan. I on the other hand still feel a bit.. shocked.. and go on, still red in the face.. The blush probably would go away if i wasnt thinking of other places id rather have his tounge... Yeah.. Im horrible...

  “Im gonna start plating food, tell Jolene?” I ask of Jean once he has the cake baking in the oven, he nods, and strides out of the kitchen. I place some vegetables, and a chicken breast, on three plates, then haul them out to the table. I place on down in front of Jolene, one down in front of Jean, and another for me next to him, then i join them in eating.

 

 

    The entire time we ate, Jean had one hand on my knee. It was so warm, and it made me feel weirdly relaxed, yet strangely flustered. He has been messing with me all night, but its okay, i will definitely be getting him back soon.. I just dont know how yet...

 

  “Happy birthday, Jolene!” Jean and I wish his little sister a happy birthday together in unison as we carry out the cake. Its a vanilla cake, with chocolate frosting, and strawberry’s. She smiles happily at us then Jean gives her a large hug.

  “God dang your old, and in a few months, you’ll be living with me, and getting ready for college.” Jolenes smile changes here. It doesnt turn into a frown or anything, but now its one of excitement, and safety almost. You can tell she really wants to move in with Jean. I can see why to. This poor girl lives in this big house all alone. Her parents are negligent, her grandparents are dead, the rest of her family are harsh, she has a hard time making friends, and the closest person to her, Her big brother, has a limited amount of time he can see her in. Her parents are never home, she is usually the only one in this big old house. It must get really lonely, no wonder she’s dying to get out of here.

  “I cant wait!” Jean cuts her a slice of cake, and places it on a plate for her, then one for me, and one for himself. We talk small talk, like what Jolene might want to study in college, the kind of place they want, whether or not they should get a pet, how they are gonna need jobs, all while we eat.

  “Oh, Jean, you gotta little.. Oh here, ill just get it.” Jean got a bit of frosting on the tip of his nose while trying to laugh and eat at the same time. I take this as my chance for a little slice of revenge, and kiss the tip of his nose, and then pull away, licking my lip. “Yum.” I hum.

  I dont think i have ever seen Jean turn so red, and his little sister finds it absolutely hilarious. Jean looks at his sister, laughing and smiling, then looks at me, and pouts. “Thats not very nice, Freckles.” He complains, making me snort. You know, i should tease him more often, its cute when he blushes...

   “No, that was revenge.” I grin, pleased to have such a reaction. Who knew he would get so flustered over a little peck on the tip of his nose. Its truly adorable, and i plan to do it again in the future, if i have the chance that is.. But something tells me, I definitely will have more chances...

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

   Screw him and his damn good cooking skills, and his cute smile, and adorable as fuck giggle that sounds like singing angels. Fuck him and his perfect ways, and his doofy grin and the absolutely precious way that he blushes, and those damned freckles. Fuck his freckles. Nothing should be that fucking attractive. Like seriously? Fuck him. His flustered expressions should not be so damn tempting, and a simple kiss on the nose should not make my heart beat be so reckless.

  Fuck it, i am so screwed by this. I am in deep. So fuckn deep into this crush that who ever could pull me out would be the damn King. Like holly shit. This is not okay. That third date needs to happen like, yesterday. I want him to be mine, and only mine, like now. I swear to fuck i need to get this show on the rode and make this shit official so i can freely fucking kiss that stupid damn smile of his and ugh. I need to do something, but who the fuck do i ask about this shit?

  Reiner’s advice is shit. Bertholt would just ask Reiner. Jolene wouldnt understand. Sasha would just tease me the entire time, and tell me to ‘try my best at getn’ laid’. Connie is to close to Marco, and wouldnt take it seriously. Armin hates romantic talk because it confuses him. Mikasa will just tell me to fucking man up and do it. That leaves.. Oh you have got to be fucking shitting me...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter, dont be afraid to comment!   
> Follow me on Tumblr or Twitter for frequent updates..


	12. Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean seeks a little advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short little chapter.

 

     ****

“Thank you, Marco. For today..  I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?” I say my goodbye to Marco. After spending a few more hours with my little sister, we had to leave, seeing as my parents were on their way home. He parked his car in the lot, then walked me all the way to my dorm. I dont think I have ever seen my little sister so happy on her birthday. For that, I feel like I owe Marco the world. Before he can say anything to me, I lean up slightly to kiss his cheek, and then disappear into my room. I hear a quite sigh, then footsteps, until there’s no sound at all.

I let out a sigh of my own, and pull my phone out of my pocket. Unlocking it, and opening up my contacts.. Here we go..

**To: Yeager : Im coming up. Unlock your door**

It takes but a second, and then my phone buzzes with a response as I step outside of my room, and scan the halls. Marco’s long gone.

**From: Yeager : Wtf Kirstein. No.**

**To: Yeager : To late**

I respond back, sliding my phone away in my pocket, and heading down the hall and up the stairs. My phone buzzes in my pocket a few times, but i ignore it, and head straight for his room. Which one was it? S’been a while since I was here.. This one i think..

“Yeager!” I shout, knocking my fist against the door. A loud groan comes from inside, and I know i’ve got the right room, I push it open, and walk inside, closing the door behind me.

“What the fuck do you want, Kirstein, I was about to go to sleep.” Eren groans, glaring at me. He sits on his bed in the same black and white skull boxers he always wears, and a plain brown T-shirt, his hair is a mess of a wet mop.

“Shut it, Eren. I need some advice, and you’r, sadly, the only person I can go to at the moment.” I groan, making my way over, and making myself at home on his bed next to him. He raises a brown bushy eyebrow at me, teal eyes examining me in suspicion. “Did you kill someone?” He asks slowly, probably serious. Fucking Eren Yeager, I swear to god. This kid’s fucked up.

“No. Shit dude. Okay. Do you know Marco Bodt by any chance?” I ask, trying to think of a good way to tell him about my situation. He pauses for a second to think it over.

“The freckled guy that works at the coffee shop? Connies friend. Yeah, he’s in a few of my classes actually. Why?” I sigh. Okay, that oughta make this a bit easier if he does in fact know him.

“Alright.. Well I have the hugest gayest crush on this guy and so-” Before I can finish my sentence, Eren bursts out laughing, shaking his head at me.

“Dude, no fucking way. He is way to good for your ass.” I groan as he mocks me. I really dont need this right now. But whatever, it would be way worse trying to get advice from any of the others.

“Shut the fuck up Yeager, and let me explain. Damn, shit. Okay. So we’ve been on two dates now, and today we forfited a third date to be with my sister on an emergency birthday visit a-” Eren cuts me off, mid-sentence, again.

“Woah, is Jo okay? What happened?” I sigh. Thanks for the consideration Eren, but that’s not really what its about right now..

“Yes, she’s fine. My parents forgot her birthday okay. Damn. Let me speak would you. Marco got her a present. He got my little sister, who he had never actually met before, a fucking present cause he is just that damn perfect. He helped me make her dinner, and a cake to. I have never seen Jo so happy on her birthday. I thought I could handle the big third date before. But now, I am freaking out because now he seems so much better somehow, like I didnt think he could get any better but he did and so now I have no idea what to do. How do you take out someone so perfect on a date, and at the end of it ask them to be yours? How in the fuck does that work? Eren, you have to fucking help me. Where do I take him? What do I tell him? What do I wear? What do I do. You have got to fucking help me.” I rush out as Eren just stares at me in shock.  He lets out a low whistle when im done, a shit eating grin on his face.

“You do have it bad. Damn. Well what were you going to do tonight?” He asks, leaning back against his bed post. I sigh, and try to think. What was i going to do today. What were my original plans again? Right..

“I was going to take him dancing, then out to eat.. Then, once we got back i was just gonna straight up tell him the truth..” That was my original plan. I thought it would be a fun night you know. Dancing has plenty of fun, and romantic oprotunity’s, and dinner would be another good night to just sit, and talk and have fun like last time. But now it just seems so lame. After today, I want something absolutely perfect for him.. I just dont know what..

“That was a good idea, but i’ve got a better one. Okay. That huge festival is in town all week right? It’s safe to say that he hasnt been yet. Tomorrow morning, call him up, Tell him you want to take him out for the day. The entire day. Take him to the festival. Do absolutely everything. See all the animals, the aquarium’s, play the games, watch the little shows, taste all the weird foods, go on all the rides, and end it on the peer okay. Whats more romantic then watching the sunset by the ocean. Dont you dare leave until they do the fireworks. Confess then. Tell him the straight up truth about your feelings for him, okay? Win him some prizes at the booths, buy him something without him knowing, and give it to him at the end of the day. Be as romantic and cheesy as possible, he seems like the type to be into that crap. Give him attention all day, compliment him and shit. If you see anyone you know there, ignore them. Sure, say hi and what not, but do not let them interrupt. Let them, and Marco know that he has your full attention for the entire day, okay. Does that work for you?” I listen carefully, and slowly nod my head. That sounds good, I guess. Though my original plan sounds more romantic, but im going to have to trust in Erens word right now. He may be a jack ass, and we may argue every time we see each other, but when you boil it down, we have a pretty decent friendship, so im going to trust him on this.

“Yeah.. It will.. Thanks, Yeager. I owe you one..” I mutter, giving him a bit of a smile, which he returns, before shoving his foot out, and kicking me off his bed.

“No problem. Now get the fuck out of dorm horse-face so I can get some damn sleep.” I chuckle a bit, and nod, walking out, and heading back to my own dorm. The festival, huh? Sounds interesting..

 


	13. Part one of the third date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to start that third date...

   “Hey Marco.. Good morning. You dont have work today right? Would you like to take that third date with me?” There’s a slight pause through the phone, before Marco responds. “I would love to Jean! What did you have in mind?” He replies. I lean back against my wall. I did exactly as Yeager told me. I picked up the phone, and called Marco first thing in the morning. Sure enough, he’s awake, because he I heard his soothing voice after only two rings.

   “The carnivals in town, I was thinking we could spend the day there..” Here we go.. I know he already said yes, but I hope he likes the plan.. “That sounds great! When do you want to go?” I can practically here the smile in his voice. That angelic fucking smile of his.. I cant wait to see it.. I cant wait to spend the day with him, I cant wait to tell him what his smile does to me.. “I’ll pick you up in half an hour? That okay?” I get no response at first, I bet the idiot shook his head, forgetting that he was on the phone.. Precious dork.. I swear..

  “Oh, I.. Yeah that’s fine.. I’ll see you in half an hour..” He says goodbye, before hanging up the phone. I get up, a smile on my face as I continue to get dressed, and ready. What do i wear? Did Eren tell me what to wear? Shit, no he didnt. I can ask reiner? I mean, he is sort of just sitting there, watching me with an annoying ass amused grin on his face, because im running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Nah, Reiners no help.

   Okay.. i should just dress.. Relaxed.. Black jeans... Black tank top... Army styled jacket that I’ll probably just toss around Marco when he gets cold.. Docs.. Chain necklace? Hmmm, sure. All my peircings in, yupp. Hair sexily messed up? Yeah, that works. Teeth brushed, mints used, good cologne sprayed, phone fully charged, wallet filled, Reiners truck keys in hand. Good to go... Lets get this date started...

 

 

* * *

 

   “H-hi.. Uh.. you look.. really good..” My face heats up, and I rub the back of my neck awkwardly when Marco opens the door to his dorm. He’s dressed very casually but god damn does it look good on him. Just a plain grey t-shirt with a low cut neck line, Black jeans and his black and white converse. He’s got the same, braided necklace on from our first date. His hair is combed nicely like usual. Actually, he looks no different from how he usually does.. but something about his smile, something about the light in his eyes, something different from usual, he looks almost.. radiant.. I dont know how to describe it.. He just looks really damn good..

  “Oh, Uh, Thank you.. You look good to..” Marcos face is about as red as mine as he steps out of his dorm, and shuts the door behind him. Before he can close the door, I catch a glimpse of a smirking bertholt.. well that’s something I havnt seen before..

  “So were going to the Karneval right? How much are the tickets to get in?” He asks as we walk down the hall way, and out of his dorm building. “Dont worry about it, okay? Dont worry about the price of anything today, alright.” I tell him, glancing over at him. He nods his head, I can tell by the clench in his jaw, and the slight spark in his eyes that he wants to object to that, but he knows I wont be taking a no for an answer. Smart boy.

  As we walk in silence, away from his dorm, across the campus and into the parking lot, and all the way to Reiner’s truck, his presence next to me is almost unbearable. His hand sways at his side only centimeters away from my own and I swear it takes practically all my will power not to reach over that small little space, and connect us. I want to hold his hand, I want to feel his heart beat in time, I want to support him as he walks, I want my hand to clamp around his own and have him know that I am here for him. But I know I cant do that yet. Not yet.. But soon..

  “Have you eaten breakfast?” I break the nervous silence between the two of us and we climb into Reiners truck, and I ignite the engine. “Oh no, I havnt.. Have you?” He asks, freely reaching over to turn on the trucks heater. He’s cold? Why didnt he say anything before?

  “I havnt. Wanna stop and grab breakfast? Or should we just eat there?” Once the warmth begins to flow, he leans back against the seat, and clips his seatbelt. “Lets just eat there, I guess.. If that’s okay with you?” He offers his suggestion and I agree to it. “Sounds good to me..” We pull out of the parking lot, driving out onto the street, and stopping slowly at the first red light.

  “Whens the last time you went to a Carnival?” I ask Marco, turning on the radio, and putting it on a low volume. I want to avoid silence during the ride, I want to just talk the way there, but it’s a twenty five minute drive, and there is bound to be a little silence here and there, so as long as the radios on, that complete quite can be avoided. “Hmmm... Well I havnt been to an actual Carnival since i was eight.. But I have been to plenty of amusement parks.. Though the last time i went to one of those was two years ago now. When’s the last time you went to one?” He turns he question back onto me as I continue driving. I nod my head a bit, unlike Marco, I actually have been more recently.

  “Last year. My friend Eren, Sasha and I all went, we took Jolene to. This same Carnival to. It was pretty fun, but Im sure it’s gonna be allot better this year..” And for no other reason but that Maco is here with me. I mean they have a couple new things every year. New Performers, new food trucks, new rides, new games, but none of that really matters much to me. What does seem to matter, judging by the rate of my heart beat when I start picturing it, is that Marco will be the one experiencing it with me.

  “Really? What kind of stuff do they have?” Marco lights up, moving around in his seat to lean closer to me. I smile, still focusing on the road. “They have all sorts of stuff. There’s a petting zoo first off, Which is really cool cause the animals are so cute. They have hundreds of food booths. Ever tried Frog legs are Fried twinkies? Cause if you havnt, you will have after today.” Marco chuckles a bit, and his nose crunches up a bit, thinking it sounds pretty gross, but its not to bad.

  “Theres all sorts of roller coasters, and other rides to go on. There’s game stations all around. Totally rigged, I swear, but that makes it all the more awesome when you win. There’s a little shopping corner, filled with booths of peoples homemade things, Like candles, jewelery, clothes, stuff like that. Not to bad you know? There’s bands that play all day long, and people go and dance by them. Its on the beach, by the peers, so you can go down there, and go into the little aquarium which is pretty cool because you can see all the cool sea creatures with out having to go in the damn ocean. Once it gets dark, like around eight or nine o clock, they do this huge fireworks display in the sand. It’s awesome. Your gonna love it, I promise.” Marco’s eyes fill with excitement as he imagines all the things I mention.

  “Sounds like allot of fun.. Oh! I love this song!” Marco stops during his sentence, as the song on the radio changes into ‘Teenagers’ by My Chemical Romance. Okay.. I did not see this coming from Marco. I remember he said Paramore was his favorite band, but My Chemical Romance? Well, I havnt even heard a song from this band since I was in highschool, and that was because Sasha was obsessed with them for the longest time, this happens to be the song she set as the ring tone for whenever I called her. Normally, if this song came on, I wont lie, I would probably change the station. But Marco carelessly singing along with an eased smile on his face makes me leave it on. I chuckle quietly as he sings away. It’s not to bad, his singing I mean. It doesnt sound like a dyeing pterodactyl or anything like that, it’s a pretty decent voice. My voice on the other hand sounds like glass going through the garbage disposal.

  Marco smiles at me, his cheeks flushing a light pink, but he continuous on with the song until it ends, and changes onto something neither of us recognize.. “Sorry.. I can’t help singing along to songs when i really love them..” He gushes, and I shake my head to. “Dont apologize man. Its cool.” It was really cute.. is what I wanted to say, But I am to big of a wimp to do that.

  Usually Im pretty up front with people, I am usually not afraid to tell people what Im thinking, but Marco is a different case.. When it comes to him.. Im careful with my words.. because I dont want to screw anything up. He’s well.. He’s special to me..

  “Okay.. Is that the Carnival there?” Marcos attention changes quickly as are destination comes into view. That’s definitely it. It’s huge. The whole areas blocked off with fences and security so no on can sneak in. It takes up the entire Park area and then it goes all the way down to the pears, and the beach. Most everything is on the recreation area, nothing is really down on the beach but people. We are here early, so its not all that crowded yet, which is great. I find us a close enough parking spot, and we hop out.

  “We are so going on the roller coaster.” I grin. From here, all we can really see is one big roller coaster, the fairs wheel, and the tops of a couple other rides, and lots of tents. The smell of French-Fries and popcorn is present as well. Fun.

  “Only if we get to go on the Fairs wheel to.” Marco counters as we walk to the entrace, and ass ourself to the line of people waiting to go in. Arnt fairs wheels suppose to be really romantic? Like arnt they number two on the shit-romance cliche list after those fucking tunnel of love things that don’t actually exist because I’ve never seen one? Cause if they are, fuck yeah, count me in.

  “Sounds like a plan.. What do you want to do first though?” I ask, my face probably red as I agree due to the fantastic images of kissing Marco in the Fairs wheel cart during the fireworks display. “How about the petting zoo? Then we could go get food and check out the shopping booths?” He pauses for a minute, trying to think where we should start out. There’s so much stuff to do today, and a limited time to do it. The biggest though, is what I have to say to Marco when that sun goes down.

  “Sounds good.. Hi, two adults please.” We stop when it’s finally are turn to pay for entrance fee’s. It’s fifteen dollars per adult, Ten for kids, which is actually pretty cheap for a Carnival. Last year, it was actually like twenty five I think, but so many people left after being the price that I think they decided to drop it. Besides, they make plenty of money based off the things inside. Not to mention 15 dollars a person really adds up when there are probably near a thousand people who enter through out the day.

  The lady at the counter smiles at us as I pull out my wallet, and hand her the thirty dollar fee. Marco winces, not really liking how much money that is. Doesnt matter much to me though. I’ve been saving up the money my parents send me, I did a few art commissions, and Reiner gave me fifty bucks to, He said I have to pay him back thirty, and do his laundry for two weeks for the other twenty. Understandable why he would though, Like I’ve mentioned before, Reiner is desperate to get me a lover, plus that and he just really hates doing Laundry. I have quite the bit of money on me at the moment now, so that Marco can fully enjoy today. We’ll probably spend a good quarter of it on food. The rest will go to tickets for rides. Game booths, and a present for him.. The lady wraps a green paper band around both are wrists, and they let us into the place.

  Okay, petting zoo first. That doesnt cost anything, which is cool. You just kinda go in, and look at all the cute animals and pet them. At least this time I can pet the fucking horses without hearing a smart ass comment from Yeager or Sasha...

  “You really like animals huh?” Marco chuckles a bit, He seems to be watching my every move as I rush into the petting Zoo and head straight to the horses. There’s only two of them, both are females and are both thoroughbred’s, you know, the kind usually used for horse racing? I pet both their snouts till Marco joins me, So both are being loved by us.

  “Funny, I actually pegged you for the kicking cute puppy’s kinda guy.” I look away from the horse for just a moment, to raise an eyebrow at Marco, and give him the 'How dare you, sir’ face. I am joking though. I get that allot actually, well never the way he phrased it, but still, it surprises allot of people when they find out that I really love animals. Hell, I love horses more then I love people.

  “Sasha’s great grandmother owned a Ranch when we were little, I spent summer after summer over there with her. I loved it. I spent more time with the horses then I did with Sasha. She wont ever let me live that down now.. Her great grandma died though, and they sold the Ranch so we havnt been there since we were ten..” I explain, reaching my arm back further to pet gently around the horses ears and mane. Sadly their in a stall, so we cant pet them all that much.

  “Hmmm You’ll have to come with me to my aunts some time.. She lives on a ranch.. Its pretty small, but she has three horses, and allot of chickens and rabbits..” Marco’s face is dusted with a light pink as he suggests it. My face heats up a bit as well, and I bite my lip. “Sounds like a great Idea..” I confirm. Eventually, we have to leave the horses, cause other people want to pet them to, and we need to see the other animals, and then the rest of the carnival. We see the pigs, goats, cows and chickens. I pet all the larger animals, I would have pet each chicken to if we had more time.

   Last is the rabbits. There’s about four here. Two are already being held by a father and his daughter. So Marco and I just pet the two there. Ones sheer black, but the other is white, with black spots. Both are soft, and extremely cute, but you know what’s cuter? Marco coddling a little bunny. He holds it gently in his hands, carefully stroking its head with a positively, teeth rotting sweet smile on his lips.

  “We should go wash our hands, and get something to eat?” Marco’s attention shifts from the little fuzz ball in his hands and onto me. Shit. I didnt even acknowledge the rabbit I am holding. I got busy watching Marco.. okay, that sounds fucking weird. I give the bunny a little rub on the head, nice and gentle before I set him down with Marco’s and the others. Im sure the little guy will get plenty of attention through out the day. Whether im referring to the bunny, or Marco.. I dont know..

  “Right.. What were you thinking for breakfast? Since they really only have Junk foods?” I ask, Following directly behind Marco, making our way to the bathrooms. “Im sure we could find something.” He shrugs, stepping into the restroom and up to the sink. Note to self, The bathroom building is right by the entrance. This is probably the only actual bathroom, everything else is portable. It will get plenty crowded later. Okay, now are hands are clean and we dont smell like a barn. Cool.

  “See, look! Donuts. That’s breakfast right?” Marco spots a food cart with the closest thing to breakfast we will probably get. We just need something small really, we’ll be stuffing are faces all day. “Lets just get a bag of mini donuts, and share them. What kind do you want?” I head up to the food stand, and wait patiently behind a group of four who are currently ordering.

 “Chocolate is fine with me.” Marco places himself next to me with a smile. “After this, we’re gonna go look around at all the shops and stuff, right?” I nod my head, that is what we planned earlier right? So of course its the same.

  “Hi, how may I help you today?” The guy behind the stand asks. He’s not bad looking, Dark brown hair, Teal eyes, a little shorter then me and holly shit its Eren. “Yeager?!” I choke out, extremely confused, he only responds with a laugh.

 “Holly shit. Your fucking face. Did I not tell you I was working here? Actually, Mikasa and Armin are to..” He leans against the counter on one elbow, head in his hand as he grins at me. I take it all back. He does not look good. He looks absolutely ridiculous in the blue and white stripped uniform and the stupid cap and ugh, fuck him. “Sooo Jean-bo, dont think you came to the booth to entertain me, you want something?” Eren’s eyes shift to Marco, whose still slightly behind me.

  “Can we get a bag of mini donuts, Chocolate, and a water bottle.” I groan, looking away from him. I swear to god im kicking his ass later. He didnt tell me to bring Marco here because it’s a good plan for a date, he did it to draw in business, that dick. Dear god. What do I do now? I am gonna have to make the best of it.. “Here yah go, see yah later Kirstien.” I want to slam his shit eating grin onto the counter as he hands me the waterbottle, and the bag of snack sized donuts.

  “Im gonna kick your ass later, Yeager.” I warn him. I’ll freely cuss at him right now because Marco and I are the last in line, and his co-worker isnt paying attention. “That all your gonna do to me?” He winks, but I see the twitch in his jaw, he’s trying to hold back a laugh. He’s just fucking with me. Im gonna kill him I swear.

  “I hate you.” I sigh, handing over what money is owed, while he lets a bit of his laugh slip out. “S’called friendship.” He chips, as I shake my head, moving away from the counter. “No, its called your a dick. Anyway, got more important things to do then talk to your sorry ass. Later Yeager.” I dismiss my self away from the booth. Marco smiles at me, as I hand him are breakfast. Somethings wrong though..

  “Im sure you know Eren Yeager? He’s sort of popular around campus I guess? I’ve known him for quite some time. We have a strong hate fueled friendship.” I snicker, twisting off the water cap, and chugging down a good half of it.

   “Huh, uh yeah.. I think he’s in a few of my classes. And I know his friend Armin pretty well.. But I’ve never met his sister.. Uh, Mikasa.” I nod my head, walking along side him, as we wander through the stands with items for sail. Lots of things like candles, and Jewelery, nothing we are really interested in.. Im not going to mention anything about Eren and I, or Mikasa either. That’s just not a good Idea on a date. I mean, it’s nothing id hide from him, no problem telling him, not really a secret.. But on a date? Total mood killer..

  “Oh, these are really cool. Mind if I look through these?” A clothing booth catchs Marco’s eye, and he runs off to check the bags. I nod my head, and continue to examine the booths around me. Something catches my eye as well.

  “Excuse me? How much does this one cost?” I point at the double sided necklace beneath the glass. “15 dollars for that one.” The lady at the booth smiles at me. That’s all? Eren did tell me to get Marco a gift, he may have been a little shit, but I know most of what he told me had some truth to it.

  “I’ll take it.” She smiles and nods, unlocking the glass and plucking the necklace out. She places it in a bag, as I take out my wallet, and hand her three fives. “Thank you very much! Have a wonder full day!” She smiles cheerfully as she hands me the little plastic bag, necklace inside. I quickly shove it into my jean pockets, and catch up with Marco.

  “Some of this stuff is really cool. Wanna go on that roller coaster now? Or do you think we should play some games?” I find Marco by the bags, where he was just a minute ago. He looks up when I arrive, and smiles, quickly suggesting we go and do something else. I dont get why until a split second later, when I notice he’s getting eyes from the guy at the booth. Oh, hell no. Sorry dude, this one’s of limits, grab your own freckled cutie.

 “Yeah. That roller coaster sounds fun now. Lets go.” I suck up every once of courage in my body, bite down on my lip so I wont say anything stupid, and slip my hand into his, a smile on my face.

  One mile stone down, four to go..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im splitting this into two parts. But dont worry, part two is coming soon, promise.


	14. Part two of the third date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> second part of that third date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new years! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Also, keep an eye out because I may or may not be adding a new story tonight...
> 
> ALSO, THIS STORY IS NOT OVER YET. I REPEAT, THIS STORY STILL HAS A WAYS TO GO. thank you.

   “You know? I think I change my mind, Can we go on the fares wheel instead?” Marco nervously chuckles, his hand clamping down on the back of his neck as we stand in line for the ‘Dragons Den’ coaster, the biggest one they have here. It pretty cool looking, Its dragon themed, the line of carts is painted to look like a dragon, and Dragons are fucking awesome so yeah. The coaster doesnt look all that bad if you ask me, just allot of drops, a couple of turns, nothing much really. But I dont think Marco see’s it like that, I think he see’s it more as an Iron death trap, cuing flashbacks to the final destination movies. Poor Guy.

  “Hey now.. It’s not that bad.. Are you really scared of it?” I pause, noticing the way his jaw is positioned, He’s biting his lip, and he keeps gulping, his throat is obviously dry. I think Marco might have a legit fear of roller coasters.

  “Huh, No way.. It’s t-totally fine, If you want to go on it still.. Its cool.. I am not that scared.. Your with me after..” He pauses before he mutters out that last part, his face heating up. I sigh, and gently place my hand on his shoulder. Is it really okay? No, it’s not. His body is shaking beneath my hand.

  “You know.. This look’s pretty lame anyway.. I bet the fares wheel’s a ton more fun. Let’s ditch this place.” I grin, slipping my hand down, back into Marco’s and guiding him away from the roller coaster. Idiot, Why didn’t he tell me had a fear of them before we got in line..

 I thought we agreed I’d go on that ride with you if you went on the fares wheel with me?” So that’s why, cause of what we were talking about earlier. I was fucking around, I wouldnt force him on the damn thing if he’s scared out of his mind. Jesus, Im not that fucked up.

 “You can make it up to me later in a way that doesnt involve you doing things that scare you. Let’s do stuff we both enjoy.” I do my best to give him a calming smile, letting him know that it really is okay. Why would he take that so seriously, I thought we were just messing around, you know?

  “Okay..” He smiles back, squeezing his hand in mine. I grin non stop as we walk hand in hand away from the death coaster, and to the fares wheel, Not giving two shits about the looks we get. It’s ridiculous that even in this year, people are still so quick to judge others.

  “Two tickets please..” The girl managing the fares wheel stops a green cart for Marco and I, and asks for the ride price. Going on the rides cost tickets. Some more then others. Tickets cost a dollar each, So I bought ten tickets, five for me, five for Marco. If we need more, we can always go back and buy more, simple as that. It’s better to run out and buy more, then it is to leave with a bunch of unused ones in your pocket, and having wasted money. The girl pauses, eyeing Marco as he hands over are tickets, which he insisted on carrying. Her hands linger on are intertwined tickets for a second, but it doesnt seem to bother her, nor does it stop her from ogling him. You got to be kidding me.

   “Thank you!” I pipe, hauling Marco into the cart, and shutting the little door, Both of us sitting on one side of the cart.. The ride continues on, and we go up into the air, and the wheel stops to let more people on, into a different cart. The entire time, Marco and I just sit there, hands locked together between us, not even looking at the other, just staring out the window as we hover in the air.. Fares wheels are romantic cliches right? Should I do something? I should do something.. Time to take another jump I guess.. May my success continue...

  Slowly, I pull my hand away from Marco’s, and look over at him. He’s looking straight forward, sitting up straight, he’s tensed up. I smile slightly, and allow my self to collapse, nuzzling up against him, my head on his shoulder. He relaxes beneath me, and envelops me in his arms, and gently, ever so gently, I feel him press his lips to my head. With such a simple action, this guy has my heart doing back flips, and my face the color of a chili pepper. Jesus Christ, Im weak.. He should not make me feel lis relaxed and comfortable just by putting his arms around me. My heart shouldn’t beat this fast due to a stupid kiss on the head. He shouldnt be able to do this to me.. That’s why I have to tell him today.. I cant wait any longer. He has to know by the end of the day..

 

   

* * *

 

   “Want to play a couple games? Now that we’ve been on most of the rides?” Marco pauses, lacing are fingers together again once were both away from the the flying swing ride. My heart makes a harsh ‘thump’ every time he does that, and it’s driving me crazy. After the fares wheel, we continued to go on more rides. We went on the anti-gravity space ship thingy, a small roller coaster, and the swings, the space ship was two tickets each, leaving us ticket-less, but I think were done anyway.

   “Yeah, sure. What game should we play?” I watch him closely as he checks out all the game booths, looking maybe for a fun one, or maybe one with a particular prize. His eyes stop on a game booth covered in plush sea animals, including Large plush sharks.

  “Lets play that one?” He offers, dragging me over to it in excitement. Its one of those games where you play skee-ball. Where you roll the balls up, and try to get them into a certain point category. The more points you get on each throw, the higher your little symbol climbs up the pole. Furthest one up the pole when the time ends wins, or whoever reaches the top first. Im not to bad at this game you know. It’s the basket ball, and the throwing ones that I suck at.

  “Man I suck at these kinda games..” Marco whispers as the guy at the booth explains how to play the game. There’s Marco and I, and three other people. Fuck. No, Fuck them. Sorry people, but you aint winning shit. Marco wants a prize, and I am gonna get him that fucking prize.. The buzzer goes off, telling us to start. I grab the first round, wooden ball, and roll it up the board, it falls into the twenty five. You can get 0, meaning it just falls back into the slot, five, ten, twenty-five, fifty or one hundred. A hundred is obviously the hardest one to get, but getting it almost is like a definite win.

  I don’t pay attention to any one else playing the game, and simply focus on rolling. Ten, Twenty-five, twenty-five, ten, fuck yes fifty! another twenty-five, and fuck to the mother fucking yes! I just scored a fucking one hundred. The buzzer goes off again, game end. My head shoots up from my game space to check out the poles. Marco’s is second to last.. and mine is first. Fuck yes, that means I won something for him, but just barely, someone else’s is just slightly undermine. If I hadn’t scored that lucky extra one hundred, I wouldn’t have won..

  “Claim a prize.” The guy at the booth says as the unfortunate walk away. I grin, and look up at that giant plush shark. I feel bad, I know some others really wanted to win to, probably, but I wanted to win for Marco’s sake..

  “Can I get that one?” I say, pointing the shark, the dude hoists one down from the display, and hands t over to me. Holly shit, it’s soft. “I believe this is for you?” I smile, turning back around to Marco. He grins at me, his cheeks dusted with pink. Cute.

  “I think I could give a cutie like you a consolation prize.” The guy at the guy at the booth leans over a little to wink at Marco with his devilish blue eyes. Nuh-uh, not happening.

 “No thank you. I have everything I want right here.” Marco say’s it very politely, giving the most innocent smile possibly. I get why so many people would hit on Marco. Just look at the kid, He’s fuckn’ precious, a damn angel really, but come on, Isn’t it sort of obvious I’m trying to make him mine? I feel like I can hear Yeager laughing in the distance, laughing at my suffering and my struggle.

  “Lets go eat fried food that shouldn’t be fried but was anyway.” I grumble, grabbing ahold of Marco’s hand again, and dragging him away quickly from the game booths, giant fluffy shark plush under my arm. His hand gently squeezes mine as we walk, causing my face to heat up. Why does he have to do that? All he’s doing is making my heart pound even harder, and it puts even more pressure on me to make today perfect. That’s something I dont know how to do though? How do you create the best possible day for the best possible person? I don’t know.. No matter what I do, no matter how great today turns out, there’s still that possibility that Marco doesn’t feel the same. There is still a chance that he doesn’t feel the way at I do at all, and he’ll reject me. I know its cool, not everyone in the world is gonna like you back just.. he’s different.. I can handle normal rejection, trust me... but I can already feel it.. rejection from him is really gonna freaking hurt... It makes me want to forget about this whole thing, and just go home, and forget this ever happened, and not even bother telling him... But I know I can’t do that.

   First off, Marco deserves to know the way I think about him goes beyond friendly, Also, it will just plain drive me crazy having all this locked away in my mind. I’ll have to tell him eventually. I can’t just stop liking him, it doesn’t work like that. Every time I see him, Im going to think about the ‘What if’, im going to get those romantic urges and he’ll have to realize it sooner or later. I dont think I’ll loose his friendship over this, He’s not like that.. but there is always that possibility, and that scares the living crap out of me. I can live off us just being friends, but loosing him all together? That would tear my heart apart.. Like I’ve said multiple times before.. I like him way more then I should.. and I’m gonna have to take some risks..

  “What do you want to eat? A hamburger and fries sounds pretty good to me..” I smile back at Marco, Trying to shake off my worried thoughts. I shouldn’t thin about it to much.. Just.. just let things happen...

  “That one doesn’t have all that long of a line? Let’s jump on it while we can.” It may feel like it’s only been a minute or two since the day started, but it’s been hours since we got here, It’s nearly four in the afternoon. I didn’t even realize it to be honest. I guess we spent a lot of time in lines and on rides. I didnt even notice the time passing. It’s also gotten allot more crowded, there are hundreds and hundreds of people all around us. When we first got here, the lines were maybe a couple of minutes each, but now there around twenty maybe even half an hour each. It really adds up I guess.

   “Hmm they have allot of options..” Marco and I scan the food carts signs, with their complete menu. They do have allot of choices, and considering Im just now realizing the only thing I’ve eaten today were a few mini donuts, Im fucking hungry a shit. My eyes are probably bigger then my stomach, but whatever.

  “I want the bacon burger and fries.. The fried pickles.. fried zucchini, mini corn dogs, a pretzel and a large coke.. what about you?” Marco just chuckles, and shakes his head at me, probably amused by my dining choices. Man when I am hungry, I am hungry.

  “I’ll just get the chicken strips and fries. That way I can still pick off your food and not have my stomach burst.” I think he just sassed me. Did I really just get sassed by Marco Bodt? I mean, it was a lame attempt at sass, but still sass.

  “You need to work on that sass, Bodt. It’s weak.” He just looks at me, eyebrows raised, as he lets out a deep huff. His expression is hilarious, he looks so done.

  “Did you just sass my sass?” I grin, and cross my arms over my chess, which would look a lot cooler, and more intimidating if there wasnt a giant shark plush in my arms. Shit.

  “What if I did sass your sass? What are you? The sass police? You gonna arrest me for public display of sassbacks?” Marco just looks at me for a moment, and eyebrow raised before he throws his head back a bit in a laugh. His is fucking hypnotizing, and musical. Is it even legal for one person to be so perfect?

  “Im on lunch break at the moment. I’ll arrest you later.” Once his laughter dies down, he jokes back, and we mindlessly step forward in line till were next. I give the people at the cart our order, and they put it all through. I pay as Marco gets all the condiments he thinks we need from the little table off to the side, and grabs a shit ton of napkins.

 “Here you go. Have a nice day.” They get all the food out quickly. Thank god they put it on a tray, trying to get all this shit to a table without one would be damn chaotic. Im surprised all this fucking food even fits on a single tray. Its allot of food, and I am gonna eat it all, I might throw up, but I’m gonna eat it all.

  “Your eyes are bigger then your stomach..” Marco snickers as I place the tray down on the wooden pic-knick table he managed to snag for us. I shake my head, man I am so going to prove him wrong right now. Granted, he’s probably gonna help me eat allot of it.

  “Bull shit.” I grumble. Start with the burger man, Burger and fries, pick at the other shit while you eat. Yes, I am taking this to seriously, why? Cause I’m stupid. Im panicking about the whole Marco maybe future boyfriend maybe future nothing thing and food makes things better. Dont you eat comfort food when you feel sad or stressed out and stuff? Well by my logic, if it goes in my mouth while im sad or stressed, it’s comfort food. Therefor, all this greasy shit in front of me, is my comfort food.

  “So sharks? Are they your favorite animal?” I ask, my main priority at the moment maybe stuffing my mouth whole, but I dont wanna sit here in complete silence. I mean, there’s plenty of noise all around us. The bands playing in the distance, and there’s people everywhere talking and shouting, but it all bans together, and makes a blob of noise that sort of blurs into nothing. So the second my mouth is cleared of food, I try and spark a conversation.

  “Huh? Oh, Yeah they are. Back at my old house, we lived pretty close to the ocean, and the aquarium, so we went there allot. My favorite part was the shark tunnel. Mostly because I remember watching allot of Dinosaur documentary’s in the early morning with my mom. Megalodon’s were so cool to me, that just made me love sharks. Weird reason right?” I smile a bit, and shake my head, popping another fry into my mouth. Foods not half bad. “Nah, S’pretty cool.” He takes a bite of his chicken tender, and nods towards the stuffed shark.

  “What about you? What’s your favorite animal? Maybe I can score one for you.Wait.. is it horses?” I snort, and shake my head. Yeah I love horses, but their not my favorite animal. I usually dont tell anyone my favorite animal when they ask anymore, but that’s cause every time they sing the stupid song, but I’m going to trust in Marco..

  “Foxes. My favorite animals are foxes..” He smiles and takes the answer, and thankfully, no singing. There’s allot about Marco I still dont know, that I would like to know.. I’d like to know everything he’s willing to tell me really.. I know I could ask, I just don’t know what to ask..

  “Foxes are cute, didnt think you’d be the cute animal type.” Are you kidding me? Cute things are my weakness. Perfect example of that, Him. “Fox’s are adorable man. That’s my one true weakness, S’like my Kryptonite.” I think this is the oddest conversation I’ve ever had on a date, Or maybe that would be Marco and I discussing how we were gonna call the other to save us from a date with each other. That was odd, but sort of funny. Man, I have a lame sense of humor.

  “Good to know, Weaknesses are always good to know.” He adds with a thoughtful head nod. Do I even want to know what he’s thinking right now? Probably not..

   “Excuse me, Do you know what time the fireworks start?” I hear a women’s voice ask from behind us. She’s not talking to us, so I dont know why I picked up on this. I mean, she is really close, so naturally I would hear her, but I usually tune everyone out?

  “In about an hour Miss.” Who ever she asked responded, and my eyes almost bulged out of my head. An hour? One fucking hour? Only sixty minutes? Jesus fucking Christ, I think my hearts gonna burst. The fireworks is when Im suppose to tell Marco. Im suppose to fucking confess in an hour. Oh my god. I thought the fireworks started at fucking Six? It’s only four thirty, did they boost up the time? What in the ever loving fuck. Okay, breath Jean, Breath. You got this. So what, it happens half an hour sooner, no big deal right? Right..

  “Oh, that’s right! Are we gonna check the fireworks out after this?” I guess Marco overheard that lady to, great. I nod my head, and carefully reach for the soda, and take a large gulp. Sixty minutes to plan what I am gonna say. Sixty minutes.. Yeah.. I got this..

 

* * *

 

   “Sorry there weren’t any sharks.” I tease Marco as we make are way out of the mini aquarium that’s at the end of the peer.

  “It’s cool, Im just glad we got out of there before the really scare things showed up. People.” He makes a lame joke back, and I laugh at it a bit. He’s some what serious though. Maybe ten minutes in to us being in there, and admiring all the cool sea life they have, herds of fucking people rushed in, are instant reaction was ‘Nope’ and we high tailed it out of there. Thank god we made it out alive, without getting trampled over.

  “Why everyone chose now of all times to go in there, I dont know.” I sigh as we walk hand in hand over the the edge of the peer, and watch the last few minutes of the sunset. All the beautiful, bright pastel colors fading into a beautiful black night sky with stars hanging everywhere. Any minute now, The fireworks will be going off..

  “Hey Marco?” I bring his attention away from the newly fallen night sky, and over to me. Behind us is the sound of wash crashing against the peer, and the sand. There’s the sound of people talking everywhere and the classic rock band playing. There’s the cold night air and bright carnival lights surrounding us along with the smell of salt from the ocean, and the sickening sweet and fried foods. It’s perfect, and the second I hear the faintest explosion of lights behind us, and the colored flames painting the pitch black sky reflect in his dark brown eyes, my heart starts to thumb. Im out of time..

  “Today was really fun, Wasn’t it?” I ask him, he just grins and nods. His hand still tightly holds mine as we stand off in are own little world. I should enjoy that smile while I can. Poor innocent Marco, He has no idea what im about to dump on him.. He could be fine with it.. but there is always that worst case scenario.. That ‘what if’..

  “Yeah, It was an awesome date. Thank you for bringing me, Jean.” He squeezes my palm slightly, and my heart clenches. I can do this.. but the way my name rolls off his tongue.. and his genuine smile as he thanks me. He really did have fun today, you can tell he’s not lying. If worse comes to worse, I can survive knowing that. Knowing that he did have fun with me. It’s at least not some pity date he had to suffer through..

  “Marco I n- No.. I fee-.. You sh-..” I tried to say something, anything, but everything just jumbles out at once, and I stutter and fuck up. That fear of rejection is right there, glued to the very front of my mind, and I cant break past it. Trying to plan out what to say is just making it worse, its just pressuring me more, and that makes me panic more. What if there’s something I forget to say? What if it doesn’t sound right? What if it doesn’t make sense? Its just. Ugh. Marco stares at me confused, one eye brow raised. Fuck it. He needs to know.

  “Screw it. Marco, I have the hugest fucking crush on you and you dont even know it. Do you know how fucking frustrating it is to like someone like you? Who gave you the fucking right to be so damn perfect all the time? Who the hell decided it was a good idea to combine adorable freckles, and the cutest smile possible one one damn good looking dude? Who said you could be so damn nice and funny and how in the hell could you not tell that I wanna kiss your fucking face every time you smile and I just wanna fucking hold your hand and cuddle with you on cold days, and I wanna tell you lame child hood story’s that I wont tell anyone else cause they’re to embarrassing and I want to be with as much as possible and I want to make you laugh and smile and hear that cute ass angelic giggle of yours and holly shit I need to breathe.” I let loose, and let as much of my thoughts pour out as I possibly can, and I may or may not have a forgotten to breath while talking because I rushed everything out. My face feels like it’s on fire, and it’s probably as red as a watermelon as Marco just stares at me in shock.A second later, Im developed in a blanket of pure warmth, and It takes me a moment to realize Marco is hugging me, the shark plush on the ground at are feet.

   “You know, If you had told me sooner, It would have saved us both allot of heart ache..” He mutters in my ear as he holds me tight. I relax against him and release a deep sigh. Does that mean what I think it means? I think it does. Does that means I fucking panicked over nothing? Fuck yes it does, but that doesn’t matter right now. There’s only one thing that matters at the moment, and that is that he feels the same way..

  “Hey.. Hey, Marco? Will you.. Uh... Holly shit this is embarrassing..Will you be my boyfriend?” I mutter out. Im so fucking flustered right now, I feel like an over emotional middle schooler asking their crush to the dance, it’s ridiculous.

  “What do you think?” He mutters back, still holding me close to him. That’s the only answer I need..

 

* * *

 

   “So Bert’s at my dorm with Reiner then?” Jean asks, as I read him the text message that my roommate had sent me. Jeans hand tightly clutches mine as he escorts me up to my dorm, just barely an hour after he confessed and asked me out. If you must know, in that moment, my heart completely stopped, I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He liked me, just as I liked him. He saw me as more then a friend, and I saw him the same way. I was beginning to think he wasn’t into me like that, I know Im bad at flirting, but I thought he would at least get some of the hints I dropped. I dont know, it’s hard to put this feeling into words. Relief? Happiness? Joy?

  Just.. He thinks about me the way I think about him.. He’s mine now.. He asked me out.. As in he is now my boyfriend.. I can kiss him.. and cuddle with him.. and hold his hand with less of a worry. It’s such a weird feeling, knowing the person you’ve been falling so hard for, has been falling for you just as fast.. It just feels great...

  “Yeah..Thank you for today, Jean.. it was perfect..” To embarrassed to actually kiss him, I lean in, and kiss his cheek, then quickly move to unlock my door. When I turn back around, He holds the plush shark back out to me, and something else.

  “Whats this?” I question the little plastic bag he places in my hand. His face is bright red, and he absolutely refuses to look me in the eyes. “I uh.. I was suppose to give this to you early.. During the fireworks.. Im sorry, I forgot about it..” He explains as I pull a chain necklace out of the bag. At the end of the chain, is a little, round, metal pendant. On it is an engraved little coffee cup with steam. Oh my god, It’s so incredibly lame and cheesy, but it’s cute.

  “Thank you..” I breath out, a happy grin spreading across my lips. “Your welcome.. I’ll see you tomorrow.. Goodnight, Marco..” He mutters, giving a small, awkward wave as he turns to leave. There’s an instant pang in my chest. I switch the necklace over to my other hand with the shark, and reach out, grabbing Jean’s Wrist.

 “Jean, Wait!” I pull him back to me, and finding the courage I couldn’t before, I carefully place my lips over his in a gentle kiss, our first kiss.

  “Spend the night with me? Please?” I dont want to wait till tomorrow to see him again. I know I spent the whole day with him, but that’s not enough right now. I want to spend a few more hours with him.. I want to spend the night with him, as my boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter. Feel free to comment, I love them. Also, this is not the end of the story! I repeat. This story still has a ways to go!   
> Also, keep an eye out, I may or not be adding a new story tonight..


	15. Not a secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night of, and the day after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Next chapter! There's still allot to go, trust me, getting the two together was just the beginning. Hope you like the chapter!   
> Also, I have another JeanMarco fic out! It's called 'I love you because..' and it's a high school AU. Feel free to check it out!

  “Warm..” I mutter happily, pressing myself as close to Marco as I can.

  I agreed to stay the night with him, though it’s more like I didn’t even think about it before saying yes. I mean, Staying the night with my brand new, adorable and perfect boyfriend and cuddle, Or go back to my room where Bertholt and Reiner are probably doing R rated things.. Obviously Im gonna choose the cute boy to cuddle with. We kissed for who knows how long before we decided we should actually get some rest, meaning we both lost all cloths except for our boxers, and hopped into bed to cuddle.

  We lay on our sides, facing each other. Marco has one arm around my waist to hold me close, his thumb is constantly moving, and sliding over my skin, giving me the strangest surge of comfort. My head is pressed into his chest and I sigh, both my arms tucked in between us. He’s so warm, he’s worth like four soft fleece blankets.

  “Im not all that warm, Jean. You're just an icicle.” He mocks me, his other hand moving to the back of my head to play with my hair. I just make a sound in protest to argue with him, and he chuckles slightly. It brings a smile to my face. I am relaxed against his body, enveloped in his warmth, and scent, and I feel sort of like Im somewhere else.. Like Im in my own little world.. and that’s perfectly okay with me.. Marco tangles his feet with mine, as he places a soft kiss onto my forehead, earning a quite sigh to escape my lips. I love this. Im going to cherish this. It feels like such a privilege to finally be able to do this. It feels so fucking good to just be held by him, to kiss him, and to hug him, and just to talk to him knowing that I am his, and he’s mine.. I don’t really know how to describe it, it’s like returning home after being gone for a long time, or buying something important to you, like a new house or something after working your ass off to save money for it. I don’t know, metaphors are not really my thing, but it’s comfort, and happiness, and uncontrollable smiles, it’s such a weird, but amazing feeling, and I don’t ever want to let go of it.

  “We should probably actually try to sleep, I have work and classes tomorrow..” Marco yawns, nuzzling his head over mine, making me smile. I don’t respond verbally, I just nod my head against his chest, and shut my eyes. “Good night, Jean..” He whispers slowly, already half way into dream world, but that’s alright, I am to. Its amazing how fast I can fall asleep when I actually try to. I quietly yawn, one last time before falling asleep to the sounds of his steady heart beat, and his slow breath. Good night, Marco...

 

* * *

 

  “Sorry, I wake you?” Marco nervously asks, freezing the second he see’s me sitting up in his bunk with a yawn, a plan grey t-shirt half way pulled over his head. “Nah, Your fine.” I mutter, yet another yawn escaping me. Holly shit, Im tired. I have classes today though, so it’s not like I can escape back to my room for a nap. It may sound ridiculous for a man in his twenties to be longing for a nap, but I am serious when I say that, naps in between classes are a saving grace, either that or they can be Satan’s best friends, and make you accidently sleep through your alarm, and make you twenty minutes late to a lecture.

  “Oh, Okay..” He mumbles, going back to getting dressed. “I’ve got classes today to, I’ll walk you to work, and grab myself a coffee while I am at it so I don’t die.” I groan, sitting up straight, pulling my pants from yesterday back on. So what, I can wear these more then once, no big deal, I’ve seen people wear the same pair of pajamas to class two weeks in a row. The pants will pass, the shirt won’t though. It’s noticeably dirty.

  “You got a shirt I can borrow?” I ask Marco, catching him just as he starts to loop a black leather belt onto his pants. It’d be funnier If he was in the midst of pulling his pants on so I can say ‘I caught him with his pants down’ but he did that probably right before I woke up. I missed a golden Joke opportunity.

  “Yeah, Help yourself. That one’s my closest.” Marco nods his head to the small closet door next to his bed. His dorm room is essentially built just like mine, but it seems to be reversed in a few ways. His desk is were the closet in our dorm would be, and vice versa, the doors to the bathroom and Kitchen are on the opposite side of the room. I didn’t really go in them, so who knows what those are like. I lazily walk my way to Marco’s closet, and toss it open. I’ll just take a hoodie. It’s probably cold out, and I’m not in the mood to wear my leather. I pull out a dark green one out of the three hoodies that are in there, and yank it over my head and onto my torso. Holly shit, It’s so big. Usually people get hoodies a little bit bigger then they are, because it’s more comfortable that way, I figure Marco does that to, so considering that he is not only taller then me, but also has wider shoulders and a bigger size, plus it’s probably at least one size to big for him, It’s huge on me, but it’s perfect. Its so warm, and comfortable, and it smells like lavender laundry detergent. Im never taking it off. Ever.

  “Jean. That’s like two or three sizes to big for you, you look ridiculous.” Marco’s first reaction to seeing me in his over sized pull over is to laugh at. Well then. Rude.

  “No one here gives a shit what you wear. Last week I saw a girl wearing nothing but boxers and a hoodie... well, okay, that was Sasha, and they were _my_   boxers so that doesn’t really count.. but I saw a guy in a short, black and yellow sunflower sundress. _A sundress_ , Marco. It’s fucking _winter_. In conclusion, No ones going to give a shit if it looks like im drowning in your hoodie. Besides, it smells good.” He just looks at me, and shakes his head with a grin on his face. He has this odd glimpse of pride in his eyes as he chuckles at me, it leaves me in a completely confused state as I pull my Doc Martins on.

  “If you say so.. When’s your first class?” My eyes flicker to the alarm clock that flashes on his desk. It’s Eight Am. When is my first class? Hmm... Oh right. Cool, I don’t have classes for another hour and a half. “9:30. Which is perfect, I can leave you at work, take a run like usual, and then grab my coffee at my usual time.” My boots are all laced up and ready to go, I grab my phone to check it’s messages, however, the battery is completely drained. Well shit, whatever, I’ll charge it later.

  “Do you go running every time before you come into the shop?” He ponders, picking up the necklace I got him yesterday, with the little coffee mug engraved on it, hooking it around his neck, and once it falls into place on his chest, he looks down fondly at it, raising a tan, freckled hand to gently touch it, gliding his thumb lovingly over the simple symbol. Jesus hell, I don’t even think I need to run anymore, that little act was _enough_ to get my heart pumped.

  “I told you I try to work out everyday. I Couldn’t be this good looking without it, trust me.” I joke, I don’t really mean it though. I was one hell of a chubby baby, but god dang it I was cute. Every one is cute though, really, just some people find certain people cuter then others, and there is nothing wrong with that. One person may not think your all that cute, but there is just as easily ten people who think your one of the cutest things they have ever seen. In my case, Eren Yeager is on the lesser side of the cuteness scale, while Marco stylishly destroy’s that scale with multiple explosives.

  “I have no complaints then.” Marco starts heading towards his room door, but makes a quick stop at me, leaning over to gently place his lips over my own.

 “Ready to go?” You can tell Im still not used to that by how hot I feel my face getting, but it’s alright, I need all the practice I can get. “Yeah..” I pipe out, my voice accidently breaking. Holly shit, no. I am a grown man, my voice should not crack. Marco giggles that priceless giggle of his in reaction, and Im suddenly okay with my horrible cracked morning voice. He goes and locks his dorm room behind us, fully aware that my shirt and jacket are all still in there, and I fully intend to come back and get them, and probably stay with them.

  “Jean, Wait!” Marco stops me the second I start walking again. He looks down at my hands, one eye brow raised, and I can’t help but do the same in confusion. Why the fuck is he staring down at my hands like that? “Your hand looks heavy, do you want me to hold it for you?” It takes me all but a second to realize what he just said, and I just look him dead in the eye, with the most serious, ‘done with your shit’ face I have ever had in my life.

“ _Oh my god._ You cheesy mother fucker. You suave little shit. _How dare you_. I thought it was my job to be cheesy, You ass. I can’t believe you just used that line. Oh My God.” He laughs at my flustered, over reaction, but I can’t get over it. It is my designated job to be the Cheesy romantic fuck in this relation ship, dammit. This cheeky freaking bastard, who the hell does he think he is? _He’s my boy friend, that’s who he is_ , and despite his unforgivably stupid line, I let him hold my hand anyway..

 

* * *

 

  “So Marco, When’s Jean gonna take you out on that third date?” Sasha cues, leaning over the counter to tease me, as she waits for her hot chocolate. She came in to talk with Connie, But the second she saw me, her mouth opened, and now I can’t pry it shut. I ignore just about ever word she says, getting back to work, and letting her yack my ear off. What get’s me to respond finally, is this particular question. Had Jean not told anyone about our date yesterday? I mean, it was only yesterday, it’s possible he just never got the chance to tell them. But it’s possible he was also to embarrassed to tell anyone.. I think I’ll avoid that thought for now, I dont want to spend my first day with him as my actual boyfriend, considering whether or not he’s embarrassed about me.

  “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Jean walked in before I could say something, So I switch my words last minute, and decide it’s more fun if I go along with her unknowing mind. “Jeanbo!” Sasha squeals, turning on her heels, and attacking her best friend in a tight hug, her arms dangling around his neck.

  “Hey tater-tot. What are you doin’ her?” He asks, wrapping an arm around her waist, hugging her gently, before prying her off of him.

  I sort of envy what the two of them have. Don’t get me wrong, I am amazingly proud and happy beyond belief that I can call Jean my boyfriend now.. But Sasha gets something I don’t. Story’s and Moments I never got to experience, and may never actually hear of, Secrets that will never be told to him in confidence, things he will never get to fully know of to the best extent, because they’re in the past, one place I can never go in Jean’s life. Im happy to be his lover, but I want to be more then that, I want to be a close friend to.

  When I first met Jean, I said I wanted to be his friend first, right? I still want that now. I still want to be one of his closest friend, not his best friend, oh god no, that position is secured by Sasha, that won’t ever change, and I don’t want it to, But I want to be close to that level. Jean has told me allot about him already, but I still want to know, I want to know as much as he’ll let me. If I can know the past, then I’ll be content. I’ll be content knowing I can’t have the past, because I have the future.

  “Making plans with Con, but right now, Im wondering why the heck you havn’t made a move on Freckles.” Sasha explains, and I giggle. Thank god it’s a slow period right now, other wise they’d be getting all sorts of complaints for being loud, and for holding up the line. Jean looks at me, and raises an eyebrow.

  “Did you not tell her?” Jean asks, a sly town in his voice that is actually really attractive. You’d never be able to tell Jean went out on a run. He’s not noticeably sweating, or out of breath, he’s not in anything even slightly resembled work out clothes, in fact, he’s still wearing what he put on this morning, my hoodie that looks like its devouring him, his jeans, and his boots. Wait, does he always go running in his normal close? What the heck, how is that even remotely comfortable? How does one go running in Doc Martin boots?

  “Was I supposed to?” I shrug, Collecting the hot chocolate mug that Connie holds out, and piling it with whip cream and chocolate for Sasha’s sake. Connie chose to stay out of this conversation long ago, and he hasn’t bothered to say anything, just to snicker here and there, and do his work. “Well I didn’t think it was going to be kept I secret, I mean, Not with the friends we have that is.” Jean makes a sloppy hand gesture to both Sasha, and to Connie. Connie jumps back into the conversation now, with no one waiting in line, we have a chance to freely talk.

  “Keep what a secret? Huh?” Connie prods, waggling hi eyebrows while looking suggestively between Jean and I. We glance at each other, and I just shrug. He glances down at Sasha, who tugs at the sleeve of my- well at the moment, his hoodie, and stares up at him eagerly, sort of like a small child.

  “Jean! What is!? Come on, tell me!” She whines, pouting like a small puppy dog who just got yelled at for the first time. Connie nods his head in agreement, also wanting to know.

  “Jesus, Sash calm down. I took Marco to the festival yesterday for out third date.. and I asked him out, We’re officially dating.” He say’s that last part proudly, looking up at me as his lips twitch into a smile. My cheeks catch on fire, and I look away. I’d be fine if he hadn’t said it like that, with so much pride and happiness in his voice, or had given me that look after saying. Before I know it, Connie has the token of my new necklace, the one Jean gave me, twirling between his fingers.

  “Did you give him this yesterday? Oh my god, How cheesy.” Connie chuckles, a teasing tone in his voice. I get what Jean meant by ‘not with the friends we have’ I mean, just look at Sasha’s grin, and Connie’s smirk, these two are bad enough, but oh my god, imagine when Reiner finds out?

  “I happen to like cheesy.” I mutter, carefully pulling the token out of Connies hand, and gently clutching it in my own, tightly holding it to my chest.

  “Figures, otherwise you would have left Je-.. _Jean_? Why are you wearing a pull over that looks like it can fit three of you.. Oh my god. It’s _Marco’s_ isn’t it? You guy’s did the do, didn’t you.” Sasha changes her topic the second she notices my hoodie, and the tips of my ears burn along with my cheeks, but then she makes it worse, and I feel like someone just shoved my entire body into a sauna. I swear, usually a sentence like that would mean nothing to me, I mean, my best friend is Ymir for Christ sakes, that girls mouth and mind doesn’t have a censer or boundaries of any sort. The problem with what Sasha says, is I can’t remember a time where I ever really thought about Jean in an extremely sexual way, and now, thanks to this conversation, I was.

  “Jesus fuck, Tot, No. I spent the night at his house, but no we did nothing more then kiss and cuddle. Pervert.” Jean chuckles a bit more towards the end of his sentence, a little spreading across his pale cheeks, but he is still no were near as red as I am. Sasha stared at Jean, eyes narrowed, almost like she was looking for a small sign to pop up on his head flashing the word ‘Liar’, but after a moment, her hand shoved it’s way up Jeans pull over, and he didn’t even jump.

  “Your not wearing a shirt under. That’s a sure fire fuck zone, Jean. I know you.” She scolds him, removing her hand from the sweater, slightly lifting it in the processes, giving me a wonderful glimpse of his perfectly pale, stomach, with the slightest trace of a happy trail. Oh my god. No. That’s no big deal, not at all, I’ve seen Jean shirt-less before, just last night I saw him in nothing but boxers and I was perfectly fine, so why now is a little peak of his skin getting me so flustered.

  “I assure you Sasha. I do not fuck on the first date, nor the third.” I don't even know what 'sure fire fuck zone' means but whatever it is, he sure understood it.  Jean seems to be used to the current conversation, like it’s happened before, no doubt in my mind that Sasha pesters Jean about things like this all the time.

 “You may not, but maybe Marco does..” She winks a dark brown eye in my direction, and I shake my head furiously. “No, Nothing like that all.” I stumble out, earning a laugh from her, and a little from Connie. She probably enjoys the flustered reactions I give her, considering Jean hardly gives one at all.

  “I’ve got a class eventually, I really could use a coffee.” Jean changes the subject, Noting the sound of the bell chiming, meaning someone has entered the shop. Marco nods his head, Moving to take Jean order, while Connie and Sasha continue to make plans about a video game fest for a date, wile Sasha hungrily devours her hot chocolate.

  “What will it be today?” I ask tease Jean, Knowing full well that he changes his order practically every time he comes in. Just like always though, It’s extra sweet.

  “I don’t feel like trying something new today.. I want a tall, green tea frap, extra whip cream.” He smiles at me, this shine in his eye like he knows something I don’t. I raise an eyebrow to question the look, but he says nothing. Only hands me the exact money he owes, and steps aside to wait for me as I set out to making his drink. While Connie steps up to take the next persons order. I scribble Jeans name onto a large plastic cup, and I make a point to add a smily face at the end, and after a little bit of courage builds up, a couple of small hearts. I put his drink together as quickly as possible, and hand it to him with a napkin and a straw.

  “Thanks, Freckles. Im gonna text Reiner the big news. He’ll probably be pissed if I don’t tell him how yesterday went. I’ll let you know what he says, and I’ll see you later right?” Jean takes the drink from my hand, but neither of us pull away. I nod my head, not being able to control the smile forming on my lips.

  “Good.” He says in replace of a goodbye, placing a soft kiss to my cheek before exiting, leaving behind a swarm of butterfly’s to assault my gut.

 

* * *

 

**From: Jean <3 : Reiner said, and I quote: “FUCK YES. HALLELUJIA. I FINALLY SUCCEDED.”**

**From: Reiner: I will be your wedding planer. And if you ever adopt kids, I will be the best uncle ever, I promise.**

**From: Jean <3 : Oh my god. Ignore Reiner. He just sent me the same texts.**

  I contain my chuckles, trying not to disrupt my photography class. Reiner is absolutely embarrassing, Jean asked me out just last night, and Reiner is already on stuff like this. Whether it’s in a serious, or joking matter, I really can’t tell, but regardless, Im sure he means well.

**To: Jean <3: Will do. Also.. are we by any chance hanging out tonight..? **

**To: Reiner: Thanks? I guess?**

 The second I set down my phone, It buzzes again.

**(2) new messages:**

**From: Jean <3 : Id love to. I can be at your dorm with pizza by 6:30**

**From: Reiner: You are welcome.**

  A smile tugs up on my face, and suddenly photography, one of my favorite classes, seems boring.

**To: Jean <3 : Perfect.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Feel free to leave a comment! I love them, and I always respond! Thank you. Again, This isn't the end, this story still has quite a ways to go.   
> Also, I have another JeanMarco fic out! It's called 'I love you because..' and it's a high school AU. Feel free to check it out! Thank you!


	16. Meet the Kirsteins!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner with the parents (Aka, Jean gets 'cock blocked' by a phone call from his mom)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter starts off a little on the sexual side, warning. Sorry it took a while to come out, it's longer then I expected, butI hope you like the chapter!

Marco’s kisses are like pure bursts of energy, like little jolts of electricity shooting through me, and bringing my tired body to life, but they just as easily calm me down. Isn’t weird for one thing to so _easily_  rile me up, while simultaneously subduing me? It especially doesn’t help when Marco - the cute little shit that he is - is constantly sneaking them on me. It’s only been about four days since I asked him out, and we became a couple (a fact that still feels hazy to me), and still, every little chance he gets to plant a small kiss on my cheek, forehead, nose or shoulder, he does, and it drives me  _wild._

    Such little kisses should  _not_ make me as flustered as his do, so with that in consideration, Im a  _absolute mess_  when he actually kisses my lips. I mean, both of us are still a little on the new side to the whole 'dating’ thing, so right now, we keep the public displays of affection to a minimum. Im sure once we are a little more used to it, neither of us will have the slightest problem with him shoving me up a wall and swallowing my tongue whether were alone, or in front of a bunch of friends and strangers, and Im being completely honest here, we all know it happens, but for now, its mostly just quick little pecks on my face and shoulders, and the occasional peck to the lips when were alone.

   Except for right now that is. Through out the day, Marco’s little pecks increased, becoming a bit harder, lasting a little longer, getting a little closer to more sensitive spots, and they became more consistent. I see Marco every chance I get, and today, he kissed me every time he saw me, every chance he got, which was about every ten seconds. On a normal day, his kisses are like little bursts of fireworks in my gut, today? It was like each kiss installed its own little stack of dynamite. He knew it to. Every time I was greeted by his lips, my face burned and I looked like a dyeing bird (according to Sasha and Connie), each time I gave this reaction, there was the faintest glimpse of Marco’s smile warping into a smirk, enjoying my flustered expressions like the freckled demon bastard he is.

  When we got back to my dorm about.. half an hour ago, I called him out on his shit, cause you know, it’s totally not fair to make me all embarrassingly frustrated like that in public, the first thing I received was a grin and after that.. well.. that Kids, Is how I ended up with Marco’s tongue pressing against the softer skin of my neck, and his hand rubbing greedily at my hips as he hovers over my body, pressing me down into my bed.

  “Mmm..  _M-marco_?” I gasp out his name when he hungrily nibbles at my skin, sucking and lapping at it with his tongue, when he stops playing with that one section of skin, he makes a pleased sighing noise, probably leaving behind a bright love mark. He leaves them all over on side of my neck, and makes a disgruntled noise when he runs out of blank space, and decides he should move his work on to my shoulders. His hands are large, rough and tan, when they leave my hips to tug at the hem of my shirt, promptly pulling it over my torso, and flinging it far away, to where he will hopefully never see it again, I stick my lower lip out in a pout, why am _I_  shirtless and _he's_  not?. He takes that to his advantage, and nips at my lip, before resuming his art work of love bites across my pale shoulders.

  His hands soon return to my hips, holding me firmly in place, thumbs sliding over my cold, pale white skin, trying to soothe my restless body. I’ve never seen Marco like this. Not even in my wildest fantasies, and to be honest, I don’t have many of those. My feelings for Marco go above and beyond just lust, that’s clear. I have, you know, imagined it a few times, but I have always been more then prepared to wait for him. I just didn’t expect this? I thought it would take weeks, maybe months for anything this sexual to happen between us, and I was okay with the thought of that, but I got to say, I am definitely happy with this out come.

  Marco isn’t at all like what I thought he would be. I took him for the sort of guy to take it slow, and sweet, asking me if Im sure its okay every five seconds, and just making it as passionate as possible, but he’s not like that at all, not from what I can tell. He’s fast, and he’s hungry, sort of like an animal. I feel like he could devour me at any minute, and.. well.. Im not complaining, now am I?

  “ _Jean_.. How far are you gonna let me go?” He pulls his head up to whisper huskily in my ear, one hand leaving my hip to glide over my chest, and slowly rub back down, sending a chill down my spine.  _Dear god._  Just those words alone are hot enough, but the look he’s giving me is pure passion. Marco has a forest fire burning in his eyes, and his teeth are chewing seductivly at his own lip, as he glances at mine. Marco truly looks like a Carnivore about to consume his prey, _and it’s the hottest fucking thing I have ever seen_. My mouth becomes unbelievably dry, as if someone had shoved a wad of cotton in it, and I swallow harshly, as if that would help my situation.

  “A-as far as you want to..” I manage to push out an audible sentence, and his lips twitch, and the flames in his eyes jump and burst. Marco looks like his is ready to tear my body apart, and Im about ready to let him to. He says nothing, he only gives me a wink of one brown eye, and returns his mouth to my chest, leaving more of his affectionate bruises. He moves farther down my chest, exploring, until his tongue flicks across one nipple, and I shiver.  _Holy shit_. I can tell by the glint in his eyes, that he liked that reaction, and he’s about ready to do it again, when my pants start to vibrate..

  “ _God fucking dammit_.  _Who_  in the  _fuck_  is calling now.” I mutter a string of curses as I free my cell from my pants pocket. I check the caller ID, and my body instantly tenses. I take in one deep, shaky breath, before accepting the call, and pressing it to my ear. Marco, and everything he had been doing to me just ten seconds before disappears, and all I can focus on is the phone in my hand, and who is on the other end.

  “Yes, Mother?” I greet her politely, though there is a definite bite in my words. Above me, Marco froze as well, and after a few seconds, he lowers himself to me, and wraps his arms tightly around my waste, holding me close, cuddling me. All his lust, and passion, suddenly replaced by concern. Marco is well aware of my family situation, hearing it’s my mom that im talking to, probably puts him on edge, just as it does me. The first words out of my mothers words are ‘I miss you!’ and that’s how I know this conversation is not going to go well...

 

* * *

 

   “What did she want?” Marco asks the second I hang up the phone, his hand gently caressing my side to try and calm me down a bit, just as he had the entire time I was on the phone with my parents. He listened intently, watching my facial expression carefully, any sign that I was getting slightly emotional, whether it was anger, or sadness, he would catch it instantly, and press soft little kisses to my cheek, and it would suddenly be okay.

   “She claims her and my father ‘Miss me’, would like to have me over for dinner soon, and she was wondering if I was going home for thanksgiving.” I summarize the phone conversation up for Marco, and he nods his head slowly, taking in the words. I had actually forgotten about thanksgiving break until my mother mentioned it. Now that I remembered it, Im not to fond of it. Marco will probably go back to his family for the break, I know it’s selfish of me to wish I could have him all to myself that week, but I really can’t help it..

   “Are you? I mean, are you gonna have dinner with them this week? and what about thanksgiving?” He asks me slowly, almost like he is scared of breaking something. It odd, how nervous and shy he seems at the moment, when not to long ago, he was practically devouring me. This quick change of character is oddly adorable. He’s gone into ‘defensive boyfriend’ mode, and its sort of amusing.

   “I’ll go to dinner with them, but.. I don’t know if I can handle a whole week with them.. I mean, I know they’ll probably be working half the time, but it’s still... They're not in the house, but it’s still their roof that im under, and that’s  _more_  then enough to make me uncomfortable, you know? It’s the memory of being stuck there for all those years.. Just their presence makes me feel uneasy..” I mutter out, moving onto my side so that I can bury my face into Marco’s chest. I don’t want to think about my parents, the life I lived in that house, the life Jolene is still forced to live there.. I don’t want to think about it.. I just.. I just want to drown.. I want to escape it, and right now, being developed in my boyfriends arms, with nothing but his warmth, and his sweet scent of coffee around me. His quite voice working like a lullaby, making me relax.

  “I could.. I could go with you.. If you _want,_ that is? I mean.. My family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so I was just gonna stay in the dorm all week and hang out with Connie.. but, if it makes you a little more comfortable.. I could go to the dinner, and spend the week with you?” Marco offers, and my heart pounds against my chest. I don’t want Marco around my parents.. They don’t even know about him.. or even about the fact that Im not.. well.. That Im not exactly the  _straight_  son they think I am.. but.. I don’t want him to be.. tainted.. Marco has this innocence to him.. this purity, and I know it’s sort of ridiculous, considering how he was tormenting me just half an hour ago, but.. I have this strange feeling that bringing him around my parents will ruin something.. then there’s this other part of me.. that’s screaming with glee at the Idea of having Marco there with me.. If there is one thing, one person that can keep me contained, it’s Marco. Jolene can, sure, but there’s some emotions she can’t control. Some things I can’t tell her.. at least not  _yet_..

   “Thanksgiving.. I- I would like it if you came to thanksgiving with me.. But you can’t go to the dinner... My parents don’t uh.. don’t know that I swing for more then one team.. let alone all the teams.. I want to use that dinner to my advantage, okay? Im not bringing you in there without insurance..” He lets out an uncomfortable sigh, and lightly kisses the top of my head. He doesn’t like me going in alone, its obvious, but I am a big boy after all. I’ve managed this long with the ass holes who brought me into this world... I can deal with this one dinner. I also think the sigh is because he can’t believe that I am not out yet. I have my reasons though. Im not exactly the only ‘queer’ in the household.

  Jolene is actually an Asexual homosexual, or lesbian. She knew she was lesbian since the time she was eight, and came home from school crying, telling me all about how she had a crush on a girl in her class. She didn’t see anything wrong with it, and she did what any kid with a crush does, she told her best friend, who she thought she could trust. She apparently got greatly teased and picked on to the point where she couln’t take anymore, and started bawling in class. Do you know how  _ashamed_  I was to hear this? To get a call from the teacher, telling me something is  _wrong_ with  _my_  little sister for having a crush on another girl? How  _pissed_  I was because the school  _justified_  her bullying, because she was  _different_. There is  _nothing 'okay'_ about a little girl crying because the entire elementary school is calling her names. There is  _nothing okay_  about telling an eight year old girl that she is  _not normal_ , because she has a crush on someone who happens to be the same gender.

   It wasn’t till last year that something similar happened. She had confided into some of her friends that sex did not appeal to her, that she didn’t find anyone, or anything sexually appealing. What happened? She was picked on even more. She was already picked on for being lesbian, you would think kids would just forget that? but  _no_ , they remember. Now this pissed me off as well. People go around telling others that they are  _sinners_  for wanting sex, that they are  _wrong_  for lusting, they constantly have that ‘girls are  _slut’s_  if they are not  _virgins,_  and  _virgins_  are obviously  _better,_ but are still  _prude_ ’ mentality, but the second someone claims they don’t have a sex drive, everyone get’s defensive, saying it’s  _un-human_ , and _unnatural_. Whats fucking un-human is being a fucking asshole, and making a teenage girl feel like shit because of the people her heart chooses, and because she chooses not to have sex. If her  _peers_  and  _school staff_  reacted like that, how in the hell are _our parents_  going to react? Who fucking knows, but Im not risking her going the shit I went through. I told her to keep sexuality between her and me, I hate telling her to hide who she is, It’s not right to put kids on restriction like this, they  _need_  this time to explore themselves, and find out who they are in life, but she understood, she knew that our parents reaction might be a little harsh. The brighter side of it, is that we now constantly make fun of one another. Like one time, I was suppose to visit her, and she volunteered to make dinner, and half way there, I get a phone call from her, saying “ _Jean, Im so sorry. I dropped your lover, I think I broke them._ ” She fucking dropped the pan with the food in it on the floor, and needed me to grab take out or something on the way instead, but she decided there was an opportunity to phrase it like that, so she did. Then, last Christmas? She bought me a cheap cooking pan from target, painted it Pink, Yellow and Blue, the colors of the Pansexual flag, and hid it in my  _closest_. She thought it was hilarious. I personally prefer what I returned the gift with. Which was a pack of custom playing cards. Each card was an Ace of spades somehow theme with one, or all the colors from the asexual flag, Or they were Queen of Hearts cards, decorated with the Gay, or Lesbian pride flags. It took me forever to make those, and she laughed for five minutes straight as she went through them.

   I know she likes Marco, and I know she’ll side with me, She’ll catch on easily to. If I start praising him to my parents, purposely leaving out my partners gender, I know she’ll join in, and help. By the end of the night, my parents will love Marco, not knowing he’s male until the day he shows up with me for thanksgiving. Because at the moment, being developed in Marco’s arms, and his warmth, I know that I don’t give a  _shit_  if my parents  _hate_  me anymore, because I am  _happy_  with the people I have. But I will not let them hate Marco , just for being with me. I know they’ll like him till the verry moment they see his gender, and I will not let them disrespect him because of it. My parents are going to fucking love him, gender and all, whether they like it or not.

 

 

* * *

 

  The days between phone call, and the night of the dinner, were short, they went by fast, _too fast_  for me to keep up with. Every night since my little chat with my mom, Marco has been constantly at my side, comforting me, because as the day’s went by, the more fear that built up in my chest. Marco constantly held me close, kissing my cheek, and rubbing my back to soothe me. I received a few comments from people, telling me it looked like Marco was all to clingy, and they constantly questioned how I could stand it. That confused me, because I didn’t see it as clingy, I saw his intentions. He was worried about me, he saw right through me and knew I was panicking inside. He took care of me, it was for my own benefit, It would have driven me  _crazy_  thinking about it, if he wasn’t there to distract me. I never thought he was clingy, not once. I don’t blame others for thinking it, I mean, well fuck them for judging are relationship, but they  _don’t_  know whats going on in my life, while Marco  _does_. I doubt even if they did know, they wouldn’t care nearly as much as Marco does, but that’s a good thing, right, that Marco  _cares_  about me? Its a good thing. I am thankful that there’s someone in my life who freely cares about me. He’s not family, he has no obligation to care about me so much, but he does. Before I got in my car, I went to Marco’s dorm.  _I_  went to  _him_. All I wanted was a hug, and a kiss, and a promise to see him tomorrow, that’s all I asked for, and he gave me  _more_  then that, he  _tripled_  it. If there’s one thing that can boost my confidence, It’s my hot as fuck boyfriend shoving me against the wall of his dorm and kissing me long and hard, are teeth clicking together and him sucking on my lower lip. When we pulled apart for air, he pressed his forehead to mine, holding me tight, and whispered to me: “You’ll be  _okay,_  Jean. I know you can do it. I promise, I’ll see you tomorrow, and you can call me if you need me.” Then, after one last, light peck of the lips, he left me to walk away in awe.

  I borrowed Reiners' car, under the terms that I would put a full tank of gas in it, and left. The drive their was quick, giving me no time to think before I got there. I didn’t need to think though, the only thing I needed was to see Marco before I left. I needed to be reminded of what I was fighting for tonight, because he is so  _fucking worth it_. Whatever my parents reaction is at thanksgiving, however they take the news, It will be  _worth it_ , because Im doing it for  _Marco_. This boy is fucking precious to me, and Im gonna make damn sure he is liked through out the family. I don’t even think he knows what I have planned, If he did, he’d probably object, and say I was doing to much for him, but Im not. I’ve come to the realization that I practically  _need_  Marco. He is no longer just a  _want_ , but a  _need_. I’ll do  _anything_  for him, and I know that as long as the thought of him is sitting in my head, I can do anything tonight.

   “Jolene? Mom? Dad?” I call out to those who might be in the house. My parents cars are in the driveway, so they must be home. I hear a clatter in the kitchen, and harsh whispering. “Jean!” The first person I see is Jo, she rushes towards me the second she sees me, her arms wrapping around me in a tight hug, which a gladly return, along with a kiss on top of her head. Saying I love my little sister is an under statement. I absolutely adore her. I’ve kicked ass for my sister  _before,_  and I will so gladly do it _again,_  no one dares lay a hand on her, not while Im around. She’s my precious fucking baby, and I will protect her at all costs.

  “Where are they?” I ask her quietly, when she pulls herself away from me. My parents have yet to make an appearance, but I know they are here. I can tell. There’s this presence in the house, it’s an unsettling feeling that’s only here when they are..

  “Dad’s in the kitchen, helping me make dinner, which is almost ready, and Mom is upstairs, getting dressed.” I nod my head, It’s nice to have the heads up. I guess I’ll be greeting dad first, which isn’t to bad. If I had to pick one over the other, my preference would lay with my father. He was some what kinder, he seemed to try harder then my mom, the majority of the messages I received from the two are from him, not including the messages he sends from her phone, he’s the one of the two who has never raised a hand to me, but that might change soon.

  “Jean? Is that you?” A deep voice calls out from the kitchen. Unless Jolene has become a master ventriloquist, or my moms voice suddenly deepened twenty degrees since our phone call, that had to be my dad. I take a deep breath to brace myself, and walk the short distance into the kitchen. My dads back is to me when I walk in, he’s in the middle of grabbing a couple of bowls, and filling them with salad. They did a multiple course meal, so they can keep me here  _longer_ , I  _know_  they did.

  “Hey..” I mutter awkwardly when he comes into view. He drops the salad tongs back into the bowl, and spins around to see me, a large grin tugging at his lips. He looks.. he looks like he’s genuinely happy to see me.. like he actually might have missed me..

  “There’s my boy!” He shouts cheerfully, tugging me into his embrace, its tight, and warm, just just like Jolene’s was, but unlike her hug, I hesitate to return it. This feels  _weird_ , almost  _wrong_.. like I shoudn’t be doing this.. but after a few seconds, I hug back.. it feels twisted still, despite my loathing grudge, there is, and always will be a part of me that wants things to be normal, like they used to.. a part of me who is dyeing for normal, loving parents again..

  “Hi dad...” I mutter again, just as awkward as the first time as he releases me from his grip. His smile never falters, but it’s not fake. It’s _real,_  it’s _genuine_ , it’s meant to be there, he’s not forcing it, and that has me, in all honestly, amazed.

  “Your just in time for dinner. Were starting with salad. I already got your ceaser dressing on the table, your mother should be out in a minute, so help me bring out the salad will you?” He grabbed two bowls, and placed them in my hands, while he grabbed the other two, leaving Jo to grab the napkins and silver-wear. I follow him back out to the kitchen, where he did in fact have a couple bottles of dressing waiting, including my favorite bottle of ceaser dressing.

   As he moves to place the bowls down, I carefully examine him. He’s tall, and well built, I certainly didn’t get my body type from him. His hair is think, wild if he doen’t have work, like it is now, and it’s a dark brown color. His eyes are a golden brown, like mine, he’s got a strong jaw, and an obvious habit of lip biting. He has long legs, and wide shoulders. He’s dressed casually, black pants, plain grey shirt, black shoes, and his usual cinnamon cologne. I didn’t inherit much from him, physical wise that is. I got his long legs, golden eyes, and his wild hair, and I sort of got the color. Where more alike when it comes to personality. He doesn’t like dressing fancy, he likes his casual, laid back clothing like I do. I’ve seen pictures of him when he was my age, we dress identically. My dad wasn’t made for the life of a wealthy man, that was way to obvious. He’s also where my music taste came from. If you thought it was my mom who spent hours swooning over Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley, then you were wrong.

  “Jean!” A high pitched female voice chimes from behind me. For the third time, I am enveloped in a hug. This time, the embrace is from my mother, and this time, I can not bring myself to return it. I thought the one from my dad was odd, but this is  _worse._  This felt just plain wrong, like the feeling you get when you break a serious rule?  _It is just plain wrong_. It doesn’t feel real, or warm like it did with Jo or my dad, it felt forced, and cold, if anything. It isn’t long either, almost as quickly as she hugged me, she released me. The smile on her lips isn’t forced but.. it’s practiced.. like she just spent the last half an hour doing it in the mirror.. it’s _rehearsed_ , an  _act_..

  “Mom..” If I thought my voice was strained and awkward with my dad, it was even worse with mom. Someone half my size in weight and size should not scare me, or intimidate me, especially not the woman who gave birth to me. She looks the same as ever, tiny, long dirty blonde hair tied into a bun, large green eyes, and bright pink lips. Minimal make up, soft grey dress that reaches her knees, and has long sleeves. She wears grey flats, because I know she’d die and roll over in her grave before she wears high heels in her own house, she absolutely hates them. She adapted better to economy status then her husband had, but there are still traces of the poor women she grew up as.

  “I hope your hungry, Jean. We certinly made you a good meal tonight to welcome you home.” My mom says, pulling out a seat at the table, and promptly sitting down. She says ‘we’ but I know damn well she didn’t even step a foot into the kitchen, she probably doesn’t even know what they made. I choose my seat carefully, and sit directly across from her, inbetween my dad and Jolene. On a normal occasion, I would sit next to her, so that Jo wouldnt have to, but I can’t to do that, _not tonight_.

  “So, how are your classes going?” My dad asks, sitting down to my right, just as Jo sits to my left. My mom obviously forced her fashion sense onto her, it’s not a normal thing to see my little sister wear a skirt, and certainly not a yellow one, with a white tank top. Jo hates skirts, they make her feel uncomfortable, and she especially hates the color yellow, it tends to be to bright, and hurts her eyes. She also hates the color orange, she says its the ugliest color in existence, she despises it unless its in the form of food.

  “Good.. Im really enjoying my art class.. Right now my professor has us on this thing of sketching real life situations..” I mutter, closing the cap of the salad dressing, once I feel I have enough in my bowl, and began to stab at the lettuce. My parents don’t like hearing about my art, I know that, But Im going to be doing enough of dodging the truth with the topic of Marco tonight, I feel like I should be as straight forward with everything else. At the mention of my art class, and are real life sketches, the first thing that comes to my mind is Marco. The day I found him in the library, I was suppose to sketch a learning environment, It was are first real assignment with the ‘real life’ binge. I had planned to just sketch the library building quickly, but when I spotted Marco.. Well.. I couldn’t resist my curiosity about him, and went over to the boy. I am so happy I talked to him that day, that was the beginning of are friendship, and you know what they say? _Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back._

  “Wonderful..” My mother muttered, clearly, she was still sore on the topic of my career choice. My father on the hand, seemed to be over it. “That sounds interesting, do you have any pictures? I would love to see them.” He asks, a fork piled with lettuce half way into his mouth, making me chuckle a bit, and Jolene giggled. Hearing her laugh was relaxing, because it told me she was  _okay._

  “I have some on my phone.. Yeah..” His question threw me off guard a bit, I never expected him to be interested in my art, considering he was mad when I first told him. I clumsily reached for my phone, and freed it from my jean pocket. Unlocking it quickly, and going into my photo album. I have a whole separate folder filled with my art work, both personal and for school. I went through the pictures of my drawings, and rough sketches. I realize allot of these are of Marco, and I definitely can’t show him those, at least not  _yet._  There is one, however, that I  _can_  show him. The picture of Marco at the library. I click on the photo, and hold it out to show my father. He grins as his eyes scan it over, and this passionate fire bursts in his golden brown eyes. I flip through more photos for him. Sketches of numerous of my friends, like of Sasha and Connie. A few rough sketches of Jolene, and a few of just plain nature stuff, like flowers or forests, and horses. I’d never seen this look on my fathers face before. He looked so happy, and so content with the art I showed him. It took me a while to figure out, but it’s  _pride_.. I see it now, It’s  _pure_  and  _utter pride_. He’s  _proud_  of me, his son, and the work I am capable of, and it’s  _genuine_ , it’s _truthful_ , he’s not forcing himself, he truly likes my art work.

  “Your really good kid, these are amazing.” He doesn’t question the picture of Marco at the library, or the fact that it has so much more detail then anything else I showed him. Every time I sketch Marco, I make damn sure I get it right. I pay attention to each freckle, and the slightest curve of his lips as he smiles, and the glint of light in his eyes. Marco is beautiful, a real work of art, and it would be a  _shame_ , a  _crime_  really, if I didn’t capture him as such.

  “Anne, you should see this, They’re incredible.” My dad looks across the table at his wife, encouraging her to look at the photos as well, but she gives a slight shake of the head. “Now is not the time, Pierre, Maybe later.. right now, I think you ought to bring in the next course.” They exchange in a quick, quite conversation through eye contact, then he pushes out his chair, and stands to his feet, and heads to get the main course. That’s another thing I got from my dad, his name. His name is Jean-Pierre, one of the most stereo-typical French names possible, but according to my Grand-Mere, it was on purpose. Jolene removes herself from her chair, and collects the now empty salad bowls, and takes them to the kitchen, leaving me and my mother alone.

   “So, Jean.. How are your other classes?  _Besides_  Art I, mean?” I resist the urge to scoff at her as she leans her elbow against the table, and entertains herself by twirling a stranf of ash blonde hair between her fingers. “They’re fine.” Is my only response, she nods her head slowly, and for a few seconds, there is an awkward silence that would burst into flame if you held a match inches from it.

  “How are your friends? Do you still hang around Sasha? She’s such a pretty girl, and her parents are very nice, and well off to. Do you have any interest in her?” My nose scrunches up in disgust at the thought? Sasha and I? As anything more then friends, I don’t think so. I mean, Yeah, Sash is pretty, talented, and funny but not really my type, she’s way to hyper and spontaneous for me. If I would go for any girl, it would probably be Eren’s sister, Mikasa. She’s quite, calm, collected, beautiful, and she can kick your ass in a second if she needs to. But my real type? Tan, tall, sweet and freckled. That’s how I like em’.

  “No mom, were just friends, she’s practically my sister. Besides, she has a boyfriend, a friend of mine named Connie.” I correct my mom now, because If I don’t, she’ll just ask more questions, and as little the conversation the better.  

  “Alright then? How about someone else? You have to have your eye on someone?” I know that by that, she means having a girlfriend, or at least a crush.

  “Well, I actually do have someone..” I say quietly, though I don’t feel shy and awkward, here’s the conversation I have prepared for, here, I know what I am doing.

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me! I was trying to set you up with the daughter of one of my co-workers, cute, shy girl. She doesn’t go to your school, but she is studying to be a nurse, thought you to would get along well, but I guess you can find someone all on your own.” My father emerges from the kitchen with two plates, setting one down infront of me, and one where he was sitting while he talks. Jolene brings in her own, and moms plate as well. On the plates are large steaks with mashed potatoes, and green beans. A simple, classic dinner, but one that I really love. I am a Meat and Potatoes kinda’ man.

  “So tell us about the lucky lady?” My dad inquires, sitting back down next to me, across the table, my mother raises one blonde brow, she is also curious about the topic. God damn, is it so surprising to have me in a relationship? And was my dad _seriously_  trying to hook me up? Why is everyone in the world trying to get me laid?? Reiner, Sasha, Connie, Eren, and now my own Dad.

  “Jolenes meet them.” I say, pushing some of the conversation onto my sister, so I can catch my breath, acting distracted as I cut up my steak into chew-able  size pieces. Jo gives me a slight glare, and shoves a piece of her own steak into her mouth. She doesn’t like being dragged into this conversation, but I can tell by the look in her eye that she has caught onto to me beating around the bush.

  “Really nice. I like em’.” She adds her comment around her bite of steak. The mouth full trick, nicely done, Kid. My mom wrinkles her nose, not happy with any of our manners, but she won’t dare say anything because well, her manners arn’t all that great either, besides, she know’s we won’t listen to her, and eat however we want. She should just be happy we are using the fork and knife.

  “Really.. Does she go to your college?” I shake my head slightly. That can mean anything, a simple shake of the head could say no to anything, I do it because of the ‘she’ they think something else. “Literature student, Wants to be a teacher. Mmm.. Working at the coffee shop right now.” I wipe my mouth half way through the sentence to help muffle Marco’s name. They nod their heads thoughtfully. I need to be as vague as possible, while still making him sound good. His dream of being a teacher sounds good to them, If I said that Marco wanted to be a Doctor, or a Nurse, they’d be all over him, but I can’t lie, I have to be honest.

  “Not bad. What’s she like?” For once, hetero-normatality comes in handy. They just assume that I am straight and I can use that to my advantage. Now.. Marco.. How do I explain Marco? I don’t think about it.. I just let adjectives spill out.

  “ _Sweet_.. As sweet as honey,  _Perfect_  really.. Kind.. Generous.. funny, a little sarcastic at times.. Polite.. Innocent, wouldn’t hurt a fly, but is totally capable of doing so if need be.. Smart, hard working, independent, caring and compassionate.. really lovable, and loving as well... Head Strong, and confidante, but still some what shy.. Silly.. playful.. positive, a ray of sunshine.. Always smiling.. Tall, fit, Short, dark brown hair.. Big brown eyes that could melt you, Tan skin, and more freckles then I thought was even possible.. Yeah..” I mutter, a bit absent minded as I talk, I get this clear picture of Marco in my head, siting there and talking to me, cheering me on, telling me I could do this. I was so focused on this Image of him, that I didn’t notice my awe struck staring off into space stage, or the silence around me as my family observed me in shock. I am not one to talk about people like this, I am not one to feel this way about people, they may not know me all that well, but they know that at least. My fathers body shakes with silent laughter, Mother looks amazed, and Jolene is giving me this look that screams ‘ _I am so telling him you said that._ ’

  “You’ve got it bad don’t you, boy?” My dads hand clamps down on my shoulder, causing me to jump a bit, and shove another fork load of food into my mouth. I swallow my food, and slowly nod my head. Screw thinking I guess.

  “ _Head over heels._ ” I confirm, and my dad chuckles again. His hand moves away from my shoulder, and he goes back to eating. “Will we be meeting her anytime soon?” Mom asks, picking carefully at her steak, in really small bites compared to the rest of ares.

  “About that. I was wondering, Their family doesn’t do thanksgiving. Is it all right if they spend it here?” My parents don’t question my use of non-gendered pronouns, because that’s a normal thing for me. I talk to them about specific friends normally, with out using specific pronouns, friends they’ve met to. They will only notice it if I do it to much, so I need to use pronouns, even non gendered, as little as possible.

  “Of course! We’d love to meet them!” See, even my dad did it, without noticing, If I work it casually, it’s okay, but I think my work here is done.

  “Great, Im sure s’love to meet you guys.” I stuff a bite of steak in my mouth, and you’d never be able to tell what pronoun I used, but if your an ignorant mind, you’ll hear what you want to hear, right? I am a master at avoiding straight talk with my parents (Pun intended).

  “Enough about my boring college life though, How’s work going?” I switch the subject to a topic I know they won’t be able to resist, after all, their lives revolve around their career.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter. I should be updating about once a week now, on weekends.


	17. Rom-Com

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco is a little concerned about about, Connie really loves Knock-Knock jokes, the only one who enjoys romantic comedy movies is sasha, Marco's movie commentary is more entertaining then the actual movie and Jean probably knows the exact number of freckles on Marco's exposed skin!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just kept on going, it's heck of a lot longer then I planned, but that's good. I actually just really loved writing this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoy it to!

_“So_ , How did it go?” I ask carefully, sitting down across from, Jean. He’s sitting in the same seat he usually does when he comes into the shop now, It’s the table we had are first, or are ‘Blind’ date at. He looks up at me, Green tea frap in hand, and lets out a low sigh. He didn’t want to talk about it when he was in line, and ordering from me. He said he wanted to wait for me, so we can talk _privately_ during my break, which I don’t really mind, it’s just that.. I am worried.. I am scared, and prepared for the _worst._.

  He’s wearing _my_ hoodie, that’s right, he still has it from the day after our third date, and I doubt I will be getting it back any time soon, along with plain black jeans, and his docs. He looks like he’s trying to drown himself in the hoodie, granted, it looked like that to begin with, but now he’s _trying_ to disappear in it.

   “In all honesty? It went _well_.. They love the Idea of you.. They can’t wait to meet you.. I just.. The _problem_ is.. I don’t _want_ you to..” He mutters, burrying half his face into the sweater, his face practically burning. I feel a frown twitch at my lips. If it went well, then why _wouldn’t_ he want me to go? Also, what does he mean, the ‘ _idea_ of me’, did he not tell them about me?

  “You _don’t_ want me to go with you?” I ask quietly, my thumbs absent minded fiddling around with the hem of my shirt. Jeans eyes nearly pop out of his skull, he sits up straight, and shakes his head furiously.

  “No. That’s not what I _meant._. I just.. I told them all about you.. Just not anything that would give away your _gender._. I don’t know how they’re gonna take it.. but.. but I want them to love you.. I want them to like you, just as much as I do.. So I bragged about you a bit, telling them what your like, and how you want to be a teacher and stuff.. they ate it up Marco.. They _love_ what they heard, but they think your a _girl.._ I am scared of what happens when they find out your _not_.. I just really wan-” Jean looks like he’s four words away from a panic attack, the slightest bit of tears welding up in his eyes, and his teeth are biting down on his lip so hard that I think he may be bleeding. I don’t know why he is so emotional over this, but I understand why he’s scared, and I don’t want him to be, he doesn’t _need_ to be scared for my sake. I just want him to be _happy_. I cut him off before he can say more.

 “Jean. _Stop_. Listen to me. It’s _okay_. Yes, It would be _nice_ if your parents liked me, but it’s not the end of the world if they _don’t._ Jolene likes me right? I heard her say it herself, she approves of me. Whats even more important, is that _you_ like me. You just said, it right now, and that’s _all_ that matters to me. So I’ll walk in there with you next week, and if they don’t like me, _so what?_ and I’ll be there for you, Jean, I promised I would be. Just the idea of being around your parents for a night makes you upset, I wouldn’t _dare_ leave you with them for a whole week. I want to go with you, don’t be scared for my sake. I am _not_ scared, so you shouldn’t be scared for me.” I reach across the table, and yank one of his hands into my own, and gently press my lips to his knuckles. I watch his Addams Apple bob as he gulps, and slowly nods his head. His lips tug into the slightest of smiles, but it’s a smile none the less, and I’ll take what I can get.

 “Go on now, Go to your classes. I’ll see you at the end of the day, _I promise_. Reiner has declared today the day to _do it_ with Bertl in my dorm, so I’ll be at yours as soon as I can. _Okay?_ ” I always ask if it’s okay first, I want his consent in just about everything I do in our relationship.I never want to accidently over step a line, and push him out of his comfort zone.

   “Okay..” He agrees to it, standing to his feet, and I follow his lead. He places a soft, little kiss on my cheek, before exiting the building, leaving me there like an awe struck puppy, my hand glued to the spot where he kissed me. It’s usually me doing the affection, and he just follows along, which is more then okay, as long as he’s comfortable and content.

  I wonder what has happened in Jeans life with his parents, other then the lack there of, that makes him so soft on the subject. There has to be something more then the neglect, I just know it. It takes him allot more then just being ignored to turn cold towards people, so what is _it_? I guess the only way to find out would be through Jean, but I won’t ask him, at least not yet. Like I said, I want him to be comfortable, I don’t want to push or pry into his own personal business, I only want to know, because I want to try and help him, I want him to be _happy_ , and if his parents are holding him back from that, then I want to know _why_ , and how to _stop_ it.

 

* * *

 

 

   “Hey, Marco. Sasha want’s to go to the movies tonight, but she want’s to make it a double date. You think you can snatch Jean up?” Connie tosses a dish towel over his shoulder as he walks over to me. I pause, taking a quick break from sweeping in order to respond. A movie date? That might be good.. Jean has been a little down since he went to his parents house yesterday..He seemed a little better after our talk.. but _still._. Maybe a night out would be good.. Distract him for a little bit, get his mind off of it..

   “Yeah, sure thing, I’ll see what I can do. What movie?” I agree to try, and lean against the broom stick in my hands. Connie sighs, and shakes his head, like he just remembered something he had been doing his best to _forget_.

   “Sasha want’s to see ‘ _Chocolates_ ’ that cheesy new Rom-Com? I tried to talk her out of it, but she is dead set on going to see that of all things. Why did they even release a fucking _valentines day_ movie a week before _thanksgiving_? I don’t fucking know.” I can’t help but chuckle as Connie spits the words out of his mouth like they are coated in deadly venom. He must really hate Rom-Coms, or maybe just this one in particular.

   “You really _hate_ this movie huh?” I joke with a silent laugh, he responds with a deep groan, and by tossing his head back in agony.

  “ _Yes_. Just _please_ fucking go so I don’t have to suffer alone alright. A normal romance movie, I can handle. Rom-Coms? No, the jokes in romance movies are so fucking bad they are _painful_ , especially to someone like me, whose humor palate is _well defined_.” I release a loud snort of laughter. Thank god were closed, because I never want anyone to hear the noise I just made.

  “Connie, you laugh at knock-knock jokes for Christ sake. Well-defined my freckled behind.” I reprehend him, and he frowns at me. It’s a greatly over exaggerated frown at that, like I just insulted the love of his life, then again, his own bad jokes probably _are_ the love of his life. I am also _very_ proud of my rhyming sentence, and feel like it should be acknowledged.

  “ _Excuse you_ , Knock-Knock jokes are the fucking shit. Tell your freckled ass _that._ ” He remarks. I raise an eyebrow, and shake my head in disagreement. Knock-Knock jokes are _not_ funny, ever.

  “Knock-Knock jokes are _ lame_.” Connie gasps, and covers his mouth with both his hands, looking at me like I just slapped him. He takes his jokes _way_ to seriously. After a couple seconds, he removes his hands from his mouth, and his hurt look turns into a glare.

  “How _dare_ you sir.” He hisses at me. There’s silence for a few good moments, and it consists entirely of Connie and I just staring each other down. 

  “Knock Knock” He breaks the silence first. 

  “Oh H-E- Double hockey sticks, I am _not_ do ing this, Connie.” I try to return to my sweeping duties, but he carries on with his obnoxious ways.

 “Knock. Knock.” He repeats, this time, a little harsher. This would be a wonderful time for are manager to walk in. Please, let me be saved from the bad jokes. 

  “ _No._ ” I repeat myself, but Connie’s not gonna take a ‘No’ for an answer.

 “Knock. _Fucking_. Knock. Answer the door, Bodt.” His words got sharper.

 “ _Fine_. Whose there?” I give in to his ridiculous game. He grins, and goes back to focusing on his joke, rather then just getting me to go along with it.

 “Sorry” He says, and I sigh. This is gonna be stupid. I can tell.

 “Sorry _who_?” I continue on. 

 “Sorry, Wrong door.” He gives me this big grin, waiting for me to laugh, I just shake my head. Knock- Knock jokes just arn’t funny to me.

  “Seriously, Nothing?” He asks, rather disapointed that his attempt at making me enjoy a knock knock joke didn’t work. “Nope. Nothing. Just not funny.” I shrug my shoulders, and go back to sweeping, Connie goes back to whipping down the counters. Its only a few seconds later when he tries again.

“Knock Knock.” I groan, and stop in my tracks to glare at him.

 “ _Again?_ ” I complain. 

 “Knock Knock.” He ignores me, and simply asks again. I have no choice but to appease the monster that I have created.

 “Whose there?”

 “A person.”

“A person _who?_ ” 

 “A person who is to short to ring the door bell.” I give a slight snort at how ridiculous that one is, but still know laughter, causing Connie to whine like a small child.I should have just laughed and got it over with, but if I faked a laugh, I would probably end up feeling bad later.

 “Why in the heck havent you two _closed_ yet? It’s getting late.” The Manager, Hanji Zoe walks in, hands placed firmly on her hips. Her hair pulled up high in a tight ponytail, and she’s currently wearing plain white jeans, a black t-shirt, and her work apron, that’s how I know she is ‘ _she_ ’. See, Hanji is gender fluid, but the way she likes it, is while working she likes female pronouns, outside of work, and school, and just casually hanging out, he prefers male pronouns. Hanji is not the first gender fluid person I have ever met, but her way is most certainly allot different then what I am used to. I am used to it going with mood? Like some days they will be female, the next day, they will identify as male, then maybe the next day they wish do go with gender neutral nouns, and that’s cool with me. At first I thought Hanji’s ways were a little odd when I first met her, but now, I have no problem with it at all, as long as she is comfortable, that’s all that matters.

  “Sorry Ms.Hanji, we were just now cleaning up.” Connie apologizes, returning his dish towel to the counter surface, and getting back to cleaning. I chuckle, and return to the last of my sweeping as I talk to Ms. Hanji. 

  “Yeah, Sorry. Connie was so offended by my lack of love for his knock knock jokes, he had to try and prove me _wrong._ ” I tell her the actual reason why we are running late on the clock, as I know Connie wouldn’t dare say it himself. 

  “Did he _succeed_?” is her only question. Hanji is actually a really cool manager, she’s nice, and really laid back. She can be a little.. eccentric... at times, and she’s really high strung and hyper, but in a fun way. It’s the owners, Levi and Erwin smith that you’ve got to be afraid of. Though, they are both very nice, and cool people in their own way, they are definitely not the guy’s you want to piss off.. 

  “Nope.” I respond to Hanji, causing Connie to grumble something about me being ‘lame’ and ‘unfair’. After that, we hurry up and finish cleaning, and sign out so that we can both go back to our respective partners, and meet up again at the movie theater so we may suffer through the dreaded ‘Rom-Com.’ 

 

* * *

 

 

   “I can’t believe you made me agree to _this._.” Jean grumbles, his hand squeezing tightly at mine, and I just grin at him. It took _allot_ of convincing (especially after I told him _what_ movie we were gonna see) but I finally got him in Reiner’s car. Once we got here, though, and now that we’ve actually bought our tickets, he’s starting to regret it.

  “It just took a little convincing is all..” I shrug, tugging his hand, dragging him along to the snack line, were Connie and Sasha are.

  _“Bull shit_. You bribed me.” He mutters, shoving his free hand in his jacket pocket as we wait in line, two people behind our friends, who are at the front of the line, and who our practically robbing the place of snacks. 

  “I did _not_.” I counter, shaking my head a bit as I scan the menu board above. Popcorn with that white cheddar stuff on it sounds good? Or maybe some gummy bears.. or both..

  “ _Really?_ Cause what I was promised sounds like a bribe to me.” He argues back. What did I offer him again? _Oh,_ right, All I said was that I’ll spend the night with him again, and shower him with kisses if he goes with me. That’s not a bribe is it? I had plans to do that already, even if he didn’t agreed, but he doesn’t need to know or remember that, since he’s already here and all. 

  “That counts as a bribe?” I ask, a bit of laughter under my breath, as we move forward in line, and Sasha and Connie step to the side to drown there popcorn in butter. It looks like they got a large popcorn, a bag of gummy bears, two different bags of chocolates, a pretzel, nachos, four cookies, a large coke, and two churros. How in the hell they plan to eat all of that, I don’t know.

  “Yes, babe, you bribed me. I wouldn’t have come if you didn’t offer that.” He avoids saying what it was out loud, making it sound like its something dirty, when it isn’t, but I understand, we are in public and what not.

  “Then I’ll have to keep to my word, won’t I?” I lean over, and gentle kiss his lips. His face instantly turns a bright shade of red, and his eyes go wide. I don’t think he expected me to do something like that in public, should I not have? I know he’s still not all that used to public displays of affection, maybe I should have asked if I can do that sort of thing now? He doesn’t say anything, only touches his free hand to his lips, quickly, in shock, and squeezes my hand in his tighter. 

  “Hi, what can I get for you today?” It’s finally our turn in line. Jean pulls his hand away from mine to pull his wallet out of his pocket, because despite me wanting to, and being capable of paying, he _refuses_ to let me do so. He _likes_ spoiling me, even if it was _my_ idea to come here tonight.

  “Can we get a large popcorn, and what else do you want babe?” He goes ahead and orders a popcorn, and the women behind the counter turns her back from us to grab that while I think.

 “A bag of gummy bears please, and whatever you want to drink.” He nods his head, and waits a few seconds for the girl to place our popcorn down on the counter, and ask what else we want. 

  “Can We also get a bag of gummy bears, and a large sprite. Please.” He quickly adds a please to the end of his sentence to be a little more polite. Despite being a grump, and accidently being rude on occasion, he tries his best to be polite to strangers, and people he thinks deserve it. Like in the coffee shop, I’ve notice he says his ‘please and thank you’ to everyone working, except to Connie, who he usually just chats with casually, or if he does say something polite, he does it sarcastically. “Sure thing. That’ll be 10.53 please.” He nod’s his head, and pulls two fives, and a one from his wallet, and hands it to her. “Just keep the change, thank you.” He tells her as she places the bag of gummy bears and the large soda on the counter. Jean grabs the popcorn, and the candy, leaving me to grab the drink.

   “Want anything on this popcorn, Freckles?” He steps to the side at the condiment bar, where Sasha and Connie are still waiting for us. “Butter, and some of that White cheddar seasoning stuff.” He nods his head, and do as I asked, while I put a lid on are drink, and shove a straw in it. We can share, his tongue has been in my mouth more times then I can count now, sharing a straw shouldn’t be a problem.

  “All ready to go in now?” Sasha asks, she’d be bouncing in place if she weren’t carrying so much food with her. She’s the only one who actually _wants_ to watch this movie. Connie is only here because it’ll make her happy, and Im only here because Connie practically begged and also in hopes of cheering my boyfriend up, while Jean is only here because I promised him extra affection if he came. So Sasha is the only one actually here for the _movie_ itself. 

 “Yeah.” Jean groans, stepping back next to me as we follow behind the other couple. 

  “It can’t be to bad, I promise.” I whisper to Jean, not wanting Sasha to hear the comment. Im sure I can find way’s to make the movie entertaining. My bad movie commentary could probably liven it up a little bit. Or I could _distract_ him, and we could just not _watch_ the movie at all..

  “I doubt that..” He whines, as we enter the theater, moving closer to me, trying to find our way to a set of seats in the dark. The trailers for other movies have started. 

  “Just take the very back.” I whisper harshly up to the two walking in front of us. They nod, and make there way to the very top, taking my word of advice. The top is good because then there is no one directly behind us, and If there is no one behind us, then I will have absolutely no problem trying to _‘entertain’_ Jean, whether its through my banter, or not. 

  “We get the middle seats.” I call, the middle seats have no one in front of them, or near them, the closest people are at the other end of the row, and Connie who will be next to us. We sit down just as the first movie preview ends, and the next one starts. I put the soda in the cup holder on the other side of Jean, and lift the arm rest from between us, He sets the popcorn, and my bag of gummy bears on his lap, as he leans in to my side.

  “Next time we go to the movies, we better see something really fucking _good._..” He grumbles. I remember our second date, and the _awful_ horror movie we watched. He’s right, we really ought to actually see something good for once.

  “I’ll make this more entertaining, I promise.” My goal here was to try and cheer Jean up, since he hasn’t been all that happy since he went home to his parents yesterday. I just want to see him happy again, So I’ll do _anything_ I can to make it happen.

  “You better..” Is his only response before he shoves a handful of popcorn in his mouth. I reach over him for my bag of gummy bears, and break it open. Oh these are gonna be gone before the movie even starts. 

 

 

* * *

 

  _Five minutes_ into the movie, and it’s already had four romantic comedy cliches. I’ve managed to make Jean laugh though, when the main couple met for the first time, there was a ten second shot of them just staring into each others eyes for some reason, and it reminded me of a horror movie scene, like when the stupid person calls out into silence ‘is anybody there?’ so my automatic reaction, for some unknown reason, was to whisper: ‘Oh no.. Heterosexuals..’, Connie and Sasha heard it to, and they started laughing as well.

   My movie commentary instinct is weird, and I sort of just _blurt out_ random stuff. That was a little offensive in my mind though, and I felt like I should apologize, but when I told Connie that, he said not to worry about it. I don't _ever_ want to be offensive to anyone, especially not to any of my friends. 

  “ _Why_ the chocolates? How did he know her _address_?” I whisper, as the next scene plays one. The main girl receives a box of valentines chocolates at her door step, obviously from the main guy. Like _seriously_ though? Who _does_ that? Who sends a box of chocolates to the house of someone he _just_ met that day? How did he _know_ her _address_? What if she doesn’t like chocolates? I just don’t understand movies.

  “Marco.” Jean chuckles quietly, taking a sip of sprite to wash down some popcorn. I ignore him though. 

  “No. _What_. Why did she just say yes to that other dude’s proposal. _Who_ even is that guy? He hasnt even been introduced _yet_. What is happening.” The very next scene shows a guy, who hasn’t even been shown in the movie yet, proposing to the main girl. She pauses for a moment, and glances behind her towards the main guy, who is _obviously_ heart broken, and then she says yes to this guy’s proposal. What in the heck is happening? Who wrote this? It makes like _zero_ sense.

  “Marco.” Jean chuckles again, trying to get my attention, yet again, but Im to focused on the god awful movie that is playing out before my eyes.

  _“Wait._ Wait. Connie. What happened? Why is she _crying_? Where’d the wedding dress come from? What the hell is wrong with her? Is she crying because that dress is _disgusting_? If I had to wear _that_ dress, I’d be crying to. Look at it, it’s a _crime_.” Before I have time to even process it, the main girl is shown in a dressing room, trying on this long, puffy, bright yellow wedding dress with several layers of ruffles, with long, see through sleeves, and little orange crystal flowers all over it. _It’s hideous_ , who in the hell would even look at that dress seriously. 

  “Oh my god..” Connie chuckles under his breath, trying not to distract Sasha, while Jean tugs on my shirt collar. 

   “ _Marco._ Shut the fuck up.” Jean whispers quietly, I can feel his hot breath hitting my chin, and then he pushes his lips against mine. Well then, thats one way to shut me up. I forget about the stupid movie, and place one hand on the back of Jean’s head, toying with the ash blond hair, and attempting to move my lips in sync with his. After a few seconds, he pulls away, and gives me this sly grin. 

   “You talk to much.” He whispers to me, placing his forehead gently against mine. I can’t help but smile back at him. Just staring back into his golden, caramel eyes, and admiring the small curve of his lips.

  This boy is all _mine._. Im _lucky_ , You know that? _Really freakin’ lucky._

  “I’ll gladly talk some more if you’ll shut me up like that every time..” I whisper back, just barely brushing my lips against his. It’s hard to believe that at one point in time, the closest I could get to kissing him, was my own _fantasies,_ it’s even harder to believe that that time was _only_ about a week ago..

   “You were right, this isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be..” and just like that, were kissing in the back of the movie theater again. Sasha doesn’t even notice the whole time, but Connie does, and he’s constantly smacking my arm to tell us to stop. But do you think we listened? _Nope._

 

* * *

 

 

   “You kept _half_ the deal, you gonna keep the _other_ half?” Long after the movie ended, we finally made it back to the campus, and we trudged our butts all the way up the stairs, and to Jeans dorm. What was the deal again? Oh right.. My bribe.. It was allot of kisses, which I _definitely_ fulfilled that part, but the other half of the deal? That was staying the night with him, right? I can do that.. 

  “I wouldn’t dare go back on my word..” I assure him, following in behind him. His dorm is the same as ever. Flannels, pieces of paper with doodles and sketches on them, and an army of pencils are scattered _every where_ , but there is no Reiner to be found, so He probably is at my dorm with his own boyfriend. 

   “You have classes tomorrow?” Jean asks, the second the door behind me is closed, he’s stripping himself down to his boxers, and a tank top, and is practically already in bed. I myself make my way over to his desk, and shuffle around some of his drawings. He’s got _talent_ , he _really_ does. Some of these are so beautiful, it’s hard to believe he’s the one who made them. There’s sketches of the sunrise, and of the coffee shop, of flowers, and of Jolene. There’s probably at least twenty on his desk, free floating, alone, I can’t imagine how many are in his sketch books. 

   “ Yeah I do. You?” I reply absent minded, my hands moving around all the different pictures, until they freeze on one in particular. My fingers run gently over the page as I stare at it.

   Its.. Its _me._. Not the one of me at the library.. No.. this ones _better_ then that one was.. There’s _allot_ more detail in this one.. 

  Im at the counter of the coffee shop, smiling forward. He has _every last detail_ of me down. Every fold in my apron, and shirt, the slightest curve of my smile, you can see the laughter in my eyes, the wrinkles on my hands as I write Jeans name down on a plastic cup, even the writing on the cup _looks_ like my own. There’s probably every last strand of my hair sitting accurately on my head, not to mention I feel like he got down _every_ last freckle I have. The detail on me is _absolutely amazing_ , while the background, though also extremely accurate, is drawn slightly blurred, like Im the only real thing in the world.. If it was colored in.. You probably wouldn’t even know it was a drawing, and not an actual picture.. Did Jean really do this?

   “Yeah.. What are you looking at?” Jeans voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I pick up the drawing, and hold it up for him to see.

  “Is this _your_ doing?” I blurt out, a stupid question. Still in absolute shock from the picture. His face blazes a deep red color, and he nods his head. 

  “Ah, _yeah_ , about that- Im sorry if it’s a little weird for me to draw you.. it’s just.. sometimes I reach an art block.. and the only thing that will come out on the paper is _you._. and _yeah..”_ He rushes the words out, and looks away from me, his hands fiddling with his blanket. How cute.

   “ _Its amazing_.. Would you color it for me?” I have to ask, I set it back down on his desk, and run my hand over it one last time, before stepping over to him. “You want me to color it? _Why_?” He gapes at me like a fish out of water when I sit down next to him. Is it really that hard to believe that I like his art? Or would coloring it be a problem for him? I don’t want to like put pressure on him or anything..

  “Because it’s amazing? Jean that picture has so much detail, If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought you’d taken a picture of me and put it on a sketch filter. It’s _incredible._ ” I can’t help but praise him. His cheeks and the tips of his ears are blazing in embarrassment, but it’s something he deserves to hear. I don’t think he get’s _nearly_ as much credit for his art as he should. 

   “Whenever I draw you, I feel like it’s a crime if I don’t draw you in detail.. like it doesn’t do you justice..” He mumbles under his breath, and shoves his head against my shoulder to hide his embarrassment. My grin widens, and I wrap an arm around him, to pull him closer to me. 

  “Does that mean there’s _more_ drawings of me?” I ask curiously, he nod’s his head against my shoulder, and mumbles something along the lines of ' _Sketchbooks full of em_ ’ through a yawn. I wonder just how many is 'sketch books full’, and I wonder how long has he been drawing me? I’ve never felt _more_ flattered in my _life_ , if Jean really has spent hours just to draw me.. even just that _one_ drawing of me at the counter was enough of an ego boost, I might not even fit through the door anymore.

   “Can you show them to me? _Tomorrow_ though, Right now, you really should get sleep.” I fix my sentence when Jean lets another deep yawn loose. It takes him a moment or two, but he nods his head against my shoulder. He lays himself down in his bed after he agrees, and pulls the blankets high up to his chin. 

  “Get your ass in this bed.” He yawns yet again, his eyes squeezes shut. I laugh silently, and remove my self of all clothing except for boxers, and turn of the light. 

  “Don’t have to tell me twice..” I mutter, once in the dark, and I climb under the blankets next to him, pulling him into my open arms. His head is instantly pressed into the crook of my neck, and he lets out a hot sigh. One of the best parts about Jean, and I know this is a bit _selfish_ of me, is that he is the only thing _ever_ capable of blocking out my nightmares... because Jean is a dream come true, and as long as there’s a _dream_ , there’s no room for the _nightmares_ , no matter how cheesy that sounds, it’s _true.._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked this chapter! Next time on He likes his Coffee sweet: Lots of drawings, procrastination, the boy's are gonna have a little chat about some personal stuff, and the bomb is dropped! Whooo!


	18. Both

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So in this chapter we get the two completely separate and just talking to friends. The majority of the chapter is Marco. The last little bit is Jean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Im open to any ideas anyone has to this story. I would like to make a chapter for each day of the week that Jean and Marco are off for thanks giving. So any ideas are extremely helpful and really appreciated! Hope you guys like this chapter!

“Hey there, Freckles! Sorry it’s been a long while, been busy with classes and work. How are things going in the life of Marco Bodt?” Ymir practically scares the crap out of me, coming up to the counter while I’ve got my back turned to clean. When I turn to her, she continues talking, leaning on her elbows, against the counter. She looks really nice today, long sleeve tan shirt with a low cut neck, blue jeans, brown boots, and her hair up like usual, and there’s a slight hint of mascara and eyeliner, she must have a date with Krista tonight.

Now, I feel really bad for just now realizing this now, but this is the first time I have seen Ymir in weeks! She has no about anything that has happened recently, about Jean, and oh my god, she’s going to kill me for not telling her.. I mean, If she had a phone, I would tell her, but no, she despises smart phones. Therefore, I can only really tell her through email, and if I see her in person, which I havent..

“Uh.. Well... There’s this boy.. Jean.. and I..” I speak slowly, finding my words as I go, because I have no idea how to tell her, she hasn’t even heard of him yet, never met him, any of that, she’s not going to like suddenly finding out that I have a boyfriends, especially since last time I saw her, she made a vow to get me a partner, which I said was ‘Impossible’...

“Oh my god. Don’t tell me, you have a crush? That’s so cute, what’s he look like? I know him? tell me about him.” Ymir bursts out the questions before I can even get the chance to finish what I was trying to say. This may work better though, maybe if I just go with the flow, follow her lead, then tell her? I can try, it’ll work better then telling her straight out, with words I can’t even accumulate yet.

“Well.. He’s a bit shorter, and thinner then me.. He’s sort lanky? But he has allot of muscle, he works out allot.. Uhm.. He’s got an undercut? Dirty blond hair.. with golden yellow eyes... he’s an artiste... He’s in here almost everyday, twice a day.. He wears allot of flannels, and leather.. and his music taste is stuck in the 1960‘s.. What else? He’s sort of rude, and grumpy.. but he can be really nice and funny.” I do my best to explain Jean to my friend, while she nods her head thoughtfully. This is going pretty well..

“I don’t know him then do I? I doubt it. You seem to know him pretty though, hmm? You getting that Marco?  Does he want to touch the bodt?” One of ymir’s favorite things to do, is make that lame joke of my last name, I don’t mind though, sometimes it’s funny. When she asks the question, I am ashamed to admit that my first thought was; I wish he would.  Despite Jean and I officially dating and frequently make out, he is still very careful about touching me, always worried to do something that will have me running for the hills, though it is understandable, I worry about the same things, one of these days though, Im just gonna have to straight out tell him it’s okay.

“Oh yeah, Jean wants to touch the freckled booty.” Connie tosses his useless two cents in as he steps past me with a broom. I groan, of course Connie was eaves-dropping, but at least he caught on to my dodging the full truth, and went with it. Ymir chuckles and smirks at Connie’s comment, and I can practically see the gears in her mind clicking and turning.

“Why aint’ you making any moves then, Boy? Do you at least have his number? You want me to help you get that?” Ymir sips away at her fresh caramel frap. Why on earth people drink fraps in the middle of this frozen hell winter, I just don’t know.

“Oh no, Marco doesn’t need any help, He’s got little jean-y boy wrapped around his finger.” Connie chats as he sweeps, playfully tossing a wink towards us as he talks. I give him another groan, which seems to amuse him. Connie just loves to annoy me, I swear.

“Oooh, Really? Wanna kinda wrapped? Like ‘will suck dick on command’ sort of wrapped, or the ‘I will love you till the ends of time’ kinda of wrapped? Or the nice, but not as fun, ‘I’d sell my soul just to see you smile’ wrapped?” Ymir is blunt, and up front, she has no censor what so ever in that head of hers.

“All of the above.” Connie hums out a reply, and I can feel my face burning with embarrassment. They’re talking like Im not even here, not to mention part of that was sort of perverted.. not that I hadn’t thought about those sort of things...

“Oh my gosh. Marco, why are you not hitting this? Tell me you plan to hit that. He sounds perf for you.” I make such a disgusting chocking noise at this, thank god it was quite enough for no one to hear though, and I hide my face behind my hands. My god, they are horrible, they need to be stopped, and Ymir is never allowed near Jean, Ever. Cause I can just imagine all the sarcastic, sexual replies he would come up with, like, ‘Yeah Marco, Why aren’t you hitting this?’ and ugh. I hate that term, ‘hitting it’, that makes it sound like a cheap, one night stand sort of thing, and that may be the way some people like to live, and that’s cool and all, but personally, I can’t stand those sort of relationships..

“Oh my good god, Ymir. I am not ‘hitting that’. He’s my boyfriend, Okay, we are dating.” I decide to just come right out with it now, beating around the bush much longer is going to get me no where.

“So you are hitting it..” She chuckles, making one last joke out of it while she can, but when I exaggerate a groan at it, she turns serious, and goes into ‘protective sibling though’. Ymir may not be my sister, but she might as well be.

“Marco Fucking Freckled Fredrick Bodt. You got a fucking boyfriend, and did not tell me? After months of me trying to get you laid, you went and got it all on your own?” Oh my god. Why does she have to phrase it like that? and no, none of those are my actual middle names, I dont have a middle name.

“First off, my middle name is not fucking freckled fredrick, no matter how many times you try and convince me it is. Two, don’t say it like that, please, I actually really do like him..” I sigh, Im not angry at her, of course not, it’s hard for me to be angry at Ymir. Im just.. I don’t even know what to call it. I just suddenly feel very tired.

Ymir stares at me for a few seconds, her dark brown eyes staring straight into my own eyes, flickering around, like she’s searching for something in them.

“Im meeting this boy, Marco, and you can’t stop me.”  With that, she just walks away with her drink, probably off to find her own girlfriend, Krista. That’s an odd response from Ymir..

“Marco, get back to cleaning now that your not distracted, clean like your life depends on it, cause it does.” Connie advises me, going back to sweeping every inch of space around us. Why would he te- oh.. Oh my god.. No.. that could only mean one thing.

 _“Oh crap_.” I mutter, automatically grabbing some clean rags, and beginning to clean the space around me as quickly, and as officiant as possible. We keep the place clean of course, we clean up the shop every night, and every morning, so it’s always clean. However, there’s two types of clean around here. The legal clean, where it’s just standardly and logically clean. Then there is the ‘Levi’ clean, in which every single aspect of the store looks as if it has been scrubbed with bleach, everything looks as new and even cleaner then it did on the day it was bought, and the usual scent of coffee is extra strong, and mixed with a sweet vanilla scent. This type of cleanliness is named after one of the two co-owners, Levi. He is the master of cleaning, I wouldn’t call him a neat freak, it goes beyond that. Everything must be clean, even the people working here, and if the cafe doesn’t match his expectations, well, it’s not pretty.. If you know Levi will be around, you better be afraid, and be ready, because that man is among the scariest things you will face in your life, but also one of the most caring. His character oddly compliments that of his husband, Erwin smith. Erwin is also a caring man, and while he is strict, and work driven, he is also very kind and understanding, he wants whats best for the kids on this campus. They fit together well, even their opposite looks, and their large height difference compliments one another. They may be a scary duo, but I am pleased to have such wonderful bosses.

“Morning Bodt. Springer.” Speak of the Devils. The first to walk through the doors is the shortest, and the most threatening of the two, Levi. His short, black, sort of under cut like hair parted slightly to the side, and his grey eyes blazing with un-amusement. He wear a grey button up dress shirt, black jeans, and dress shoes. He looks around his cafe with a bit of pride, and looks rather pleased when he notices that we are cleaning.

“Keeping up with the cleaning work, I see?” He teases us a bit, but his lips remain in a tight line. Levi almost always has a straight face, all his emotion is in his eyes.

“Of course sir. We clean as often as we can through out the day, and then we do the normal deep cleaning before we close, and before we open the next morning.” I speak up, as Connie often gets nervous he will say something wrong in front of our bosses, and it will come back to nip him in the butt. So I speak up as often as I can, and He stays quite for as long as he can, which is actually a bit of a challenge for him.

“You’re doing a good job with it to. Keep it up.” He nods his head to us with the compliment as a student steps past him, and Connie instantly gets to work on assisting her. Many people think levi is cold hearted, but I know better then that. Levi has allot of passion, and love for people around him. I don’t think he had much family as a child. I know he has brother, and a little sister, though I have never met them, but that’s all I know. So don’t ever let his stone cold voice, and his solid expression fool you, Levi’s heart is three times bigger then the rest of him, and he cares for people more then you would ever expect.

“Good morning, Marco. Hi, Connie.” Soon after Levi enters, his other half follows him. Erwin is tall, and I mean, really tall. Not as tall as Bertl, but compared to his lover, yeah, he’s really tall. With Levi at around, what? Probably five foot four, and Erwin at maybe six foot two? There is quite a bit of height difference, and honestly, it’s sort of cute. Erwin is a buff, well built man, with blond, combed back hair, and sky blue eyes, prosthetic arm hidden under his black jacket. Rumor is he lost it during the last war, but others say he lost it in a bad car crash. Erwins personality is a bit reversed from his partners. While he is obviously very kind, and caring with a heart of gold, the man can be rather forceful, and controlling, a better word for it though I think would be something like strict? In other words, both men have an outer exterior that tends to blind what they can actually be like, but both are very good people.

“Morning Erwin. How are you guys doing today?” I ask my bosses, as Erwin drops an arm around Levi, holding him close, the latter only crosses his arms over his chest, but he does lean into his husbands side.

“We’re doing mighty fine, Thank you, and yourself?” Erwin responds with a kind smile, and I continue to scrub down counters as I talk.

“I am doing pretty great myself, actually. What brings you guys in today? Not a normal visit day, is it?” They tend to drop in every few weeks or so, I know the last time they stopped by to check on things, It wasn’t my shift. I think it was Krista’s and Hanji’s, but that was only a few days ago. Reviews are always at least a week a part.

“Not at all. We came to leave Hanji some papers, we knew we’d be in the area, so why not come in ourselves, in stead of having to email them?”  Erwin chuckles a bit, as he gestures to a bag he holds onto in his bad arm. I hadn’t even noticed that before, how odd.

“Can I ask what the papers are about, or is that top secret confidential spy stuff us duckies can’t know about?” A while ago, I learned that Hanji, Erwin and Levi like to refer to their exchanging of paper work, and official business stuff, was jokingly referred to as ‘spy work’ and they like to call us ‘trainees’ or ‘duckies’. Yeah, grown adults, my bosses, have code names for their business work. This is why I love them. I earn a chuckle out of the two men, and Erwin shakes his head.

“They’re letters, letting you all know about the little Christmas party we’ll be throwing. I know it’s a bit early, but Levi want’s everyone to sign a contract agreeing that they are responsible for any messes made by them and whoever they bring, and we also want to organize it a bit better, with whose going and if they plan to bring food and what not.” Oh? A Christmas party sounds like it could be allot of fun.  Levi’s nose crunches up, he doesn’t like the idea of a party being thrown in his house.

“Im not letting any of your brats with in miles of my house unless I know for a damn fact you are’nt gonna make a mess, and that if you some how do, you’ll clean it up yourself, and you;ll clean it up damn good.” He grumbles, and I get the oddest image of Levi waiting on the porch of his house, the day before Christmas, in inches of snow with a water gun, ready to spray anyone with a single spec of dirt on hem, before they can get near his place, so I chuckle a bit, and yes, I know, it’s a ridiculous image to get.

“So we’ll just be leaving these in Hanji’s office.” They walk past me, past Connie, and into the back of the shop to chat with my Manager, and eave behind the papers.

A work party sounds wonderful. I know that not many people actually work in the shop.. There’s Ymir, Connie and I. Then there’s Krista, and a boy named Thomas I think? and If im right, a boy named Armin started working here some time last week, though I have never met him, the name sounds oddly familiar..

I continue to clean, and I take another order and serve the costumer before Levi and Erwin exit Hanji’s office.

“Later, Bodt. Springer.” Levi’s good bye’s are almost always identical to his greetings.

“Good bye, Marco. Connie. See you both soon!” Erwin dismisses them, walking past us, with a ruffle of my hair, and a pat on Connie’s shoulder, before leading his husband out the door.

“Oh, thank god they’re gone! Sorry, but I find those two a bit intimidating..  Uhm, Marco, You can take your break now, Ymir’s at her table, waiting to talk to you.” Krista pops up from behind me. Her short blond hair clipped back, and her apron tied around her, ready to work. I smile and nod to her. Krista, as I probably have mentioned before, is a good friend, co-worker, and also Ymir’s girlfriend. The two are the cutest couple I have ever seen. Despite their opposite personality’s. Krista is as sweet as sugar, and is the kindest, most caring soul you will ever meet. She’s polite and thoughtful. Whereas Ymir is loud, rude, up front and devious. Though, that doesn’t mean the two don’t share similarity’s..  I’ve seen Krista beat up a man twice her size, and Ymir, though Krista and I may be the only two to have ever seen it, has a complete 'Sweet-as-honey- mother’ mode.

“Sure thing. Thanks, Krista.” I lean down, given that Krista is a good foot shorter then me, and kiss her cheek, earning a happy smile from her, as she gets to work, assisting a new customer. I sign off for my break, and leave my apron nice and folded, before entering the Cafe as a customer. I am not so much in the mood for a drink at the moment, so I just head straight back to Ymir. She likes sitting the the back corner of the place, she says its always less crowded, and she feels like there is less attention pointed at her.

Ymir grins, and tugs her coat tighter around her body as I sit down in the booth across the table from her.

“Hey there, boy-wonder. Now that your off duty, tell me all about this hot stud of yours.” I chuckle a bit. Ymir definitely has a way with words, but I will admit, it does bring a slight blush to my cheeks.

“Like what?”  I ask her, leaning against the table a bit. I am pretty exhausted. Last night wasn’t the.. easiest.. Last night was just another night filled with nightmares. It was really just an average night for me, I used to get nightmares almost every night, you get used to it, you know. However, since meeting Jean, the nightmares started to thin out.. I had them less often, and then when I did have them, they were shorter then usual, and even less horrific. So after a good few weeks of not having them, having one of my normal ones last night was a bit.. rough..

“Like.. Well.. have you gone on any dates?” She asks, taking a careful sip at the drink I made her a little while ago. She tilts the drink towards me, offering a bit, but I shake my head at it, and focus simply on answering Ymir’s questions.

“Yeah,  We have.. Our first date was sort of uh, mishap? We both were set up on a blind date with one another by the same friend, though we all already knew each other. Our second date we went out and saw some garbage excuse for a horror movie, then went out to eat. Third date.. He took me to the fair that was happening.. and he asked me out during the fireworks.. Then our last date, we went on a double date with Connie and his girlfriend,Sasha, and saw some awful romantic comedy..”  I give out a quick summary of Jean and I’s previous dates, and give a quite sigh at the memories as they tumble in and out of my head.

“Other then that, we hang out pretty often. When ever we both have free time, we meet up. Even sometimes when were not free, like if Im working, and he has work to do, he’ll just bring it in here, and work till Im on my break, and he’ll take a tiny bit of a break with me, or we’ll continue to talk while he works, or vice versa..” I really enjoy the times that we do stuff like that, were we sort of just.. exist together? He’ll come in, knowing very well that we probably won’t get to talk more then a few words, but he still does it,  just so we can at least be in the same room. Just to be around each other.. It’s sort of comforting. Knowing we can live our separate lives together.

“Hmmm... I think you’ve got it bad freckles.” Ymir muses, leaning against her hand. I groan and just roll my eyes at her smug little smirk.

_No duh. Trust me. I am well aware of how bad I’ve got it._

“Text him. Tell him I want to meet him sometime.” She demands of me. I sigh, and just roll with it, pulling out my phone, and pulling up Jeans contact, and sending him a quick text.

**To: Jean-Bae : Hey, Ymir wants to meet you.**

Is all I send him. And I really should put a lock on my phone, so that Connie can not mess with my contacts.. Not that Im gonna change it, definitely not gonna change it. Even if it is stupid. After a couple seconds, I get a reply. That was quick. Isn’t he studying? Why does he reply so quickly? Dammit, Jean. If that boy is procrastinating his work again..

 

**From: Jean-Bae : The lesbian best friend right?? Sure, dont see why not. When tho?**

I chuckle a bit, and hold up the phone for Ymir to see, she also finds it amusing. I know I’ve mentioned Ymir to Jean before, and I definitely did not describe her as such, that’s probably just how he summed her up in his head.

“Tell him I said after thanksgiving break. I’m going up north to see Krista’s family with her.” I nod my head and send out another message.

**To: Jean-Bae : She says sometime after break. Also, shouldnt you be studying????**

**From: Jean-Bae : K. and I won’t tell if you don’t**

**To: Jean-Bae : Dammit Jean.  Do your work.**

 

**From: Jean-Bae :  Ugh. Fine.**

I don’t bother responding. I know if he means it.That boy seriously needs to stop procrastinating. He really needs to get on top of his work.

I tell Ymir that time zone works for us, and she nods thoughtfully. Then pauses a bit.

“Speaking of break? You doing anything? You want to join Krista and I? _or_ are you too attached to your lover boy?”  Of course, the topic of thanksgiving break has to continue on. I didn’t realize how badly I was hoping to avoid this topic, till it got to far, and now its too late.

“Oh uh. Well.. Im gonna spend it with Jean and his family..” is as much as I can get out. Ymir raises an eyebrow out me, not biting in to that single sentence explanation from me.

“Alright, Kid. Its time to spill your guts. What’s the baggage?”  dammit Ymir, you couldn’t pretend you didn’t detect more? Nope, she has to know everything. She see’s right through me every time. I should have changed the subject while I had the chance. Now I have no choice but to tell her..

“He’s got family issues.. His parents aren’t exactly the... nicest.. I think they might have abused him in the past? Just talking about them makes him uncomfortable. The only reason he is willing to go is because he has a little sister that means the world to him. He’s so afraid of going into that house, just the thought of it pains him, I can tell.. I don’t want him to go through that alone.. So I told him I would go with him, and my god, did that calm him down allot.It seems like me being around helps, so that’s what I’ll do. So what if he’s got baggage? Don’t we all?”  My friend nods thoughtfully from across the table. Like I mentioned earlier, Ymir can definitely be loud and rude, but she can be very considerate when she needs to be, and she knows that now is one of those times.

“That’s gotta be pretty rough. Your a good kid, Marco, you know that. Im sure he appreciates you being there for him, and I wish you both the best of luck..”

 

_Yeah, best of luck to both Jean, and myself.._

 

* * *

 

**  
  
  
  
**

“Are you _sure_ that’s a good idea, Jean? I mean, what if something _happens_? Your gonna have to explain it all to him..” Sasha bites at her lip as she sits on my bed across from me. I nod my head, sighing. That’s exactly what Im afraid of to, but it’s a silly thing to be worried about..

“Im gonna have to tell him eventually, I mean... I don’t want to keep secrets for him. Im more worried of what he’ll think of me after he knows..” I know I should’t, because I know Marco is a wonderful person, and I doubt he would.

but there is still that _‘what if’..._

“As if he’s gonna think any different of you. Marco’s too nice for any of that bull crap. But hey, if you’re sure you wanna take him home with you over break, then by all means do it. At least you’ll be a bit more at ease.. Don’t deny it. Just being in the same room as him calms you down. I have eyes Jean, and my eyes see that you are bent around that boys pinky finger in a hundred different ways.”  I open my mouth to try and say something, anything, put up an argument, but it’s not gonna work, because she’s right. Dammit, I hate when she’s right.

“Hah. Admitting defeat, are we?” My fish out of water face is enough of a sign for her to know that she has won this battle. I snort, and hold up one skinny, long middle finger to flip her off.

“Oh screw you.” Is my last resort to counter, which just makes her laugh happily.

“Eww. No. I thought you liked Marco.” Sasha mocks my comment, by turning it back on me, and I have nothing to do, but cuss, and show her my middle finger again

“Hah. Okay. Seriously, though. I think you oughta sit down, and talk to him, like really tell him some stuff before you bring him into that house.. I know your really like him, It’s fucking obvious. Don’t let your parents fuck it up.” Sasha knows allot. I don’t tell her everything, hell I hardly tell her anything at all, she finds everything out on her own, and it’s times like these that I am glad she does know. Sash may be a good ball, but she knows when to be serious, and when I really need her advice. Sasha knows when to talk real talk, and when to laugh away reality with me, and  I am really thankful for that.. She is right...Before I step Marco into that house, whether the parents are there or not, yet, I need to tell him some things..

_He can’t go in there blind, and I can’t go in there alone._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! I know, Jeans section is a bit short, I Planned it longer but it sort of didnt turn out that way. Again, any suggestions you may have for the story, I would love to hear them. 
> 
> Next time in this story. Jean prepares to go home for the week. He and Marco have a little chat before they do. Jean spills a bit about his past.. and to find out what happens when they enter the house, you'll have to wait and find out this weekend.


	19. Lame miscommunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean and Marco argue quite a little bit about stupid things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god. Guys I am so sorry. As I think I mentioned before, I am having laptop problems, so I havent been able to get on unless it was through my phone, and I can't update like that. Here's the next chapter, it's very small, and very simple, I know. While I was off I continued writing, but that was very hard considering school, and staying after school to help out with my departments musical. I hope you guys can forgive me. I also have chapter twenty almost done, and I'll be updating as much as I can, while I can, because I dont know how long this connection will last. If you guys would like to contact me;  
> My tumblr is ; http://missmayatwar.tumblr.com/   
> My twitter; @BmaybeB  
> Id be happy to talk to you guys about anything, or answer any questions you ask. Again, I am sorry that updates might end up being far and few in between, but I will update at any chance I get, I promise. Thank you guys so much. Enjoy this chapter for now (Even though I am extremely unhappy with it)

I feel my heart stop, the same moment I stop the car in front of my home, even though I know my parents are still hours away from returning.  A warm hand reaches over, and places itself on my leg, giving it a reassuring squeeze. I take a deep breath, and turn my head to look into Marco’s worried brown eyes.

“Jean, you don’t have to go i-” Before Marco can continue his sentence, I cut his off.

“Marco. There’s allot you need to know before you go in there.” He sighs, and slowly nods his head, letting me talk, but I see the hesitation in his eyes,He knows the direction this conversations going in. I take one more deep breath, just in case.

“I.. I told you my parents had a tendency to.. Ignore.. me, right? Well.. It’s a bit worse then that, sometimes..” I hear Marco suck in a sharp breath of air, and I try to look anywhere but into his eyes, anywhere in the car, th at’s not him.

“My mom.. She’s uh.. A lot worse then my dad tends to be.. She goes out of her way to ignore me, sometimes.. She’s.. abused me, allot..” Despite my efforts, my eyes travel back to Marco a few times. The angry fire that burns in his eyes, the way his jaw is clenched. Whatever it is I am saying, seems to be rather unnerving to Marco... His hand is still on my leg, so I take it as my turn to comfort him. I twist my hand, so it’s facing up towards his, and intertwine our fingers, letting my thumb run softly over his skin.

“She’s told me.. She’s said allot of harsh things to me.. and she’s uh.. She’s..” It’s hard to say the last part, I don’t even like saying it in my own mind, let alone out loud- and to another person at that. I chew at my lower lip, trying to find a moment of courage to continue my speech. That courage is found when Marco repeats my movements, his thumb gently caressing the top of my hand.

“She’s even hit me a few times.. all while drunk though.. She acts like it never happens, I don’t know if she even remembers it, to be honest.. Dad doesn’t know, nor does Jolene.. Just.. all of this, because I didn’t wanna follow in there foot steps..” I choke out. I can feel tears welding up in my eyes, but I refuse to cry, not in front of someone, not in front of Marco..

“Oh my god. Jean. Your not going back in that house. I am sorry, but I can’t allow you to go near someone whose going to hurt you.” My eyes go wide when Marco squeezes my palm, and tries to cam me down. I yank my hand away from his, and raise my head to meet his gaze.

“No.” I snap at him. He looks a bit surprised at first, but then he reaches for me again, slowly. “Jean. Please. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” He tries to explain. I pull away from him, and shake my head furiously, refusing to back down.

“No. Not as long as Jolene is still in that house! No!” He sighs, and backs away from me. He has no right to tell me that I shouldn’t do this. He has no right to control my life. I don’t give a shit if I get hurt. My mom can hit me, and scream at me, all she fucking wants, but I am not going anywhere, not as long as it means leaving my baby sister behind with that.

“Jean.. Please.. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.. I understand that you do-” Once again, I cut Marco off before he can say anything that will anger me, because I don’t want him to anger me. I don’t want to be angry at Marco. He doesn’t deserve it. I am angry at my parents.  At myself. At the universe. Yeah, I am angry, But not at Marco, never at Marco.

“No! You don’t understand, Marco! I don’t give a shit if I get hurt! I don’t fucking care what she says or does to me, as long as it doesn’t happen to Joe! I am not leaving her in that house alone!” Marco winces. He fucking winces and scoots away from me, and that breaks my heart. He takes a deep sigh, and hangs his head a bit.

“Jean.. Your right.. I don’t understand, and I never will unless you let me.. I don’t want you going in there Jean.. I don’t want to see you get hurt.. If your mom is that cruel to you over a career choice, then what is she possibly going to say about your choice in partners? If your mom hurts you, because your with another guy, with me. Then I would never forgive myself. Jean, please. I can’t see you get hurt.. I just can’t” The sadness in Marco’s voice, the worry in his eyes, it hurts me, it really does. I made Marco upset. What sort of sick bastard thinks it’s okay to upset someone as innocent as Marco Bodt? This asshole, that’s who. I gulp, hard, in hopes off easing my now dry throat. It doesn’t help.

“Marco.. Marco, I am sorry.. I didn’t mean it like that.. You’re trying to understand, I know you are.. I am sorry.. I just.. Look, I could care less what they say about me liking another guy. They can’t make stop being with you Marco. That’s the only thing they could do to me, that could really hurt me, and it’s not gonna happen, alright? So you have no need to worry.. Okay?” I lean towards him, over the seats armrest, and pull his towards me by his shirt, so that I can lightly kiss his lips. I can only hope that my incredibly cheesy words can make him forgive me.

“Okay.. Are you sure you want to go in there, though, Jean?” He whispers quietly, setting his forehead against mine. There’s still tensions in the air. I can feel it. I may have been forgiven, but there are things that are not being dropped, and I doubt he will be willing to do so anytime soon.

“Are you going in with me?”  I ask. He sighs, his hot breath hitting my face. If it were anyone else, I’d had punched them in the gut for breathing on my face like that, but it’s Marco.

“If you want me to. Yes.” I smile, and lightly kiss him again.

“Good. Cause you’re the only reason Im gonna survive the week.. Let’s go see Jolene..” Marco smiles broadly at that, and follows closely behind me as I enter my.. House.. I realize we left Marco’s stuff in my parents car, but that’s alright, we’ll just get it later, we are in no hurry.

“Jo? Hello?” I call out, my voice echoing through the purely empty halls, bouncing around on the walls. This house is not a home. There’s a difference between the two, yes. A house, is just a house, a structure in which someone or something lives. A home, however, has fond memories, and emotions built into each inch of it. A home is where your heart is, it’s more then just where you sleep, and eat, it’s where you laugh, cry, think and live. This is not a home. I laughed too little, cried too much, and I felt far too dead here, for this to be a house.

“Jean!” A small, happy squeal is heard from the level above us,followed by light thumps of feet rushing down the stairs. Like always, I hardly get a glimpse of Jo’s wild hair before she has tackled me in a tight hug. I smile finds its way to my lips, and I wrap my arms tightly around her waist to return her affection. Her head nestles on my chest as she lets out a silent sigh of relief, for a second, I almost didn’t hear it, and I think that’s how she wants it. Jolene takes after me, which means she’s a tough girl, she is stubborn, thick headed, little rude, and she’s constantly trying to mask her emotions. She doesn’t like people worrying about her, so she thinks the best way to avoid that, is to show as little emotion as possible. I am to blame I guess, she watched me do that all her life, who else is she going to take after? The parents who she hardly ever saw?

“Hey there kiddo.” I manage to push down every last bad feeling I have, all my fear, and my worry, I shove it away, and give my little sister the brightest smile I can muster. She deserves that much, to see her brother smile, to see him be brave.. She detaches herself from me, and mimics my previous action, forcing her best smile for me, because in her mind.. If their is one thing her brother deserves, it’s to see his little sister smile.. to see her be brave...

“Hey.. Hi Marco.” She leaves me behind to give a quick, but meaningful hug to Marco. He returns it easily. It’s good to see that she likes him, and he likes her as well. They’re both very important to me.. It makes me happy to have them together.

“Hello Jo.. How have you been?” Marco seems to be the only one in the room with a truthful smile. Jolene moves away from him to talk casually.

“I’ve been good! I was starting to make dinner, If you guys wanna help?” She doesn’t wait for us, she instantly retreats back into the kitchen, which is truly her domain. There’s not a soul with Kirstein blood that can not cook, but there’s no one in the family who can top my sister in the kitchen.

“We’d love to!” Marco jumps in before I can even make a noise, grabs my hand, and trails behind my sister on the way to the kitchen, dragging me along with him. It’s not like I have a problem with it, I was going to agree to it, I just don’t get why Marco is so dang excited.

“Awesome! I was going to make stuffed chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, wedge salad, and garlic bread. Hope your okay with that, Marco?” Jolene tells us the menu for tonight’s dinner.

My jaw practically drops with the thought of all the good food we’ll be eating tonight. At least I have one thing to look forward to.

“That sounds amazing.” Marco nods his head happily as he enters the kitchen. The white marbled counter tops are lined with all sorts of ingredients; Six chicken breasts, cheddar cheese, bread crumbs, slices of ham, a bag of potatoes, three heads of broccoli, three heads of lettuce, a back of bacon, two tomatoes, and a bag of sour dough bread. Jo was totally prepared to make this whole meal by herself, sometimes it amazes me the things she knows how to do, and the things she’s willing to do. She’s not even eighteen, and yet she has so much potential for life. She could easily become a professional chef, an artist, or maybe even a musician if she practices more. When Jo was six she started playing the flute, at the age of eight, she started playing the piano, at the age of twelve she learned how to play the guitar. It’s just something she likes to do occasionally, but if she practiced just a little bit more, she could be incredible. I am sort of jealous of all the talents my little sister has. What do I have? A camera and a sketch pad, and it’s not like I am all that great at that.

“Marco, if you could start cutting the potatoes, and getting them into a boiling pot to soften them up, that’d be great. Jean, can you help me with the chicken?” Marco and I follow Jo’s instructions, and get to work on making dinner.

**  
  
**

Half an hour later, we have everything but the bread in the over, are basically just waiting for the parents to put together the lettuce wedge salade. Jo excused her self when she heard her phone ringing up her bedroom, so she rushed out, and ran up the stairs, leaving Marco and I alone.

“Are you still scared?” Marco grabs a can of soda from the fridge, and then turns to look at me as I lean my back against the counter top, using my elbows to help support me, and take in a deep breath. I am not looking at him, and yet I know the exact face he’s making. He has his lips turned down in a frown, his eyes are narrowed, and his eyebrows are slightly furrowed as he stares at me in concern. I just stare straight forward into the living room. With nothing left to distract me, no cooking, nothing to concentrate on, my mind goes back to worrying about tonight. No matter how great this dinner turns out, there is still that possibility of my parents not liking Marco, or, well no.. Not disliking Marco, they loved him when they thought he was a she. They may hate Marco and I being together. Not like I care though, their opinion doesn’t mean shit to me, I mean, I really hope they approve of him, It would make things easier, so I guess in a way I do care about their opinions, but whatever. If they kick him out, I’ll go with him. If they choose to ignore him, they ought to just ignore me well. That’s decided. To some people, choosing him over my own parents, probably sounds wrong. So replace titles with adjectives. The person who is caring, and loving, towards me over the people that have ignored me the majority of my life? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’d easily choose him over them, and even I admit that it’s a little sad.

“Jean? Hey, answer me. You’re not still worrying about tonight, are you?” I hadn’t even realized that Marco moved in front of me to try and gain my attention. I  just stare up at him for a second, trying to figure out how to respond. Am I still worried about tonight? No.. Not anymore, because no matter what happens, I am staying with Marco..

“Jean I k-” He starts to talk again when I cut him off. “No. No I am not worried anymore. I’ve got you, that means there is nothing to worry about.” That was it, my finally decision as I leaned up towards him to close the space in between us, and bring our lips together. That

s the last time Im ever gonna worry about this again. That’s the last time I need to decide that I am safe and happy, as long as I have Marco.

I get an instant reaction of his smiling lips pushing back against my own, and his arms wrapping tightly around my waist, to pull my body closer to his. My arms pull away from th counter to wrap around his neck. That little kiss escalates pretty quickly, and the neck thing I know, Marco’s arms move lower, to squeeze my ass, which leads to my gasp and his deviant chuckle, then him picking me up, and setting me on top of the counter, so he can move in between my legs. I know this gonna have to end soon and all, cause I am not about to have sex on my kitchen counter while my little sisters is upstairs. Not to mention Marco and I haven’t done anything even remotely close to sexual intercourse yet, my kitchen is not where I want us to have out first time, doing anything.

“Im glad you’ve stopped worrying.” Marco pulls his lips away from mine, and smiles at me, a hand that had previously been on my hip moves up to caress my face. I lean into his hand a bit, and give him a slight smile.

“I have nothing to worry about with you with me” I am ashamed by how sappy I sound as I kiss Marco on the cheek, especially when he smiles at me in return. I feel like we are in one of Sasha’s cheesy rom-coms; like any second now we’ll have a weird 80‘s like montage of us doing stupid stuff, then next thing I know Marco will walts down the stairs in  fancy suit, and I’ll stare and the only thing I’ll be able to say is ‘You look nice..’ in a very awkward voice, and then a second later, I’ll be walking away from my dad going ‘No dad, It’s not my dream, it’s yours..’. That sort of Rom-Com.

“Well this is unexpected..” I nearly jump three feet into the air, and prepare to bury myself six feet underground when I spot my dad standing awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen doorway, rubbing the back of his neck as he chuckles.

“Jesus fuck! You’re not suppose to get off of work for like, another hour?  Wht are you doing home?” I manage to get actual words out of my mouth as I jump down from the kitchen counter, and make a quick effort to fix my clothes a bit, while Marco just stands frozen in shock and embarrassment, his face as red as a bell pepper.

“I took the rest of the night, and tomorrow off so I could spend some time with my kids, and meet my sons new girlfriend.. who is actually a boyfriend. Is that the only thing you lied about, Jean? Is it safe to assume that this was the person you described the other night, just with a different gender?” My father asks, cocking one of his eyebrows up, as he glances at Marco, who is slowly, but surely, returning to planet earth. I guess Dad means when I came to dinner the other night, and told him all about Marco, and him and mom just assumed that Marco was a girl, so I went with it? Or well, more like I purposely left out a gender so they would assume, but whatever. Either way, I get what he means, and he is right.

“He is in-fact the person I described to you, and honestly, I never mentioned a gender. You guys just assumed.” My dad rolls his eyes a bit, but nods his head regardless. Marco seems to be alive again, his blush reddening even more then before, so he probably just figured out he was spacing for that long and is now even more embarrassed.

“Oh my gosh, Mr. Kirstein, I am so sorry! I didn’t think you’d- I mean I-” Marco’s unclear rambling apology is cut off my a chuckle from both my dad and I. I don’t think Marco really understands the situation has basically come and gone, then again, it did happen fairly quickly, and he was zoned out for the majority of it too...

“Calm down, boy. What’s your name?” Marco clamps his mouth shut for a second before introducing himself to my dad, his red cheeks fading to a soft pink color.

“Marco. Marco Bodt, Sir.” My dad sticks out his hand, and Marco steps forward to shake it. My dad nods his head thoughtfully after their handshake, which means he was impressed with it. Which is always a good thing with my dad. He finds out allot about people through a simple hand shake, it’s rather impressive, actually.

“Well, Marco. You may not be what I imagined. However; I did hear pretty good things about you from both my kids, and you seem to be making my boy mighty happy. Any guy that can make a Kirstein swoon like that is keeper. But if you hurt my Jean-Bo, I will track you down and make you regret it till your last day on earth. Until then, Welcome to the family, Bodt.” Dad drops his hand down on Marco’s shoulder to give it a tight squeeze, while his smile turns menacing. If you ever think you that your parents are embarrassing, please remember this moment here, where my dad not only made me sound like a middle school girl gushing over their first crush, and basically adopted my boyfriend into the family with in five minutes of meeting him, but he also just threatened his life if he were to ever hurt me. The amount of mixed emotions I have right now is ridiculous.

“Of course, sir. Thank you, sir.” Marco nervously chuckles as my dad smiles at him, and removes his hand from his shoulder. I can practically see Marco’s soul leaving his body, and running in fear like a bat out of hell.

“Two more things. One; Drop the ‘Sir’. You’re not the butler, you’re my sons new boyfriend. Less formality please. Two; I don’t know how the wife will react to this. She’ll take allot more time to adjust then I did” Of course mom is gonna take more then the five seconds it took dad to adust. It make take years for mom to adjust, who knows. I am not gonna deny it, though, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest just knowing that I at least have the support of one parent.

“Oh.. Alright.Thank you?” Marco’s not quite sure how to respond to my dad. I don’t know why, but I think I was under the impression that Marco was allot more smooth and suave then he is being right now. Though, his awkwardness is pretty cute too.

“When does Mom get off?” I move away from Marco, figuring that I was still oddly placed, like, half way behind him. I put myself in front of him, almost like I am ready to protect him, and in a way, I am. Im half expecting my mom to barge through the door, and curse the two of us.

“She get’s off in four hours, that’s why  I took the rest of the day off, so you could have at least one parent here with you, because your mother refused to cut her work time.”  Of course. Like always, work comes first, family comes later. The thought of her being unwilling to leave work just a few hours earlier in order to see her only son sort of hurts, I mean, work is more important then your own son? Maybe that would be okay if she had to work, if we had no money, and we needed every possible hour of her paycheck, but we don’t. Were are more then fine, financially speaking. We are not fine emotionally speaking.

On the other hand, it’s sort of a relief that she won’t be here for another few hours, that she didn’t just suddenly walk in on Marco and I like my dad just did, because we all know she woulnd’t take it as calmly as he did.

“That’s fine. I hope you’re hungry then, Dad. Jo planned out one hell of a dinner.” I try my best to smile, and I manage it. My body is a bit tense when I try and steer the subject away from my mom, and over to dinner.

“Oh, Yeah, both your kids are very impressive in the kitchen.” Marco places his hands on my hips from where he stands behind me, and smiles, trying to redeem himself after his awkward conversation that was earlier.

“In more then one way, huh?”  My dads dark eyes glance down to Marco’s hands at my waist, and I practically choke on the air I am breathing. Jesus christ, I know exactly what he meant by that and that is the last thing you ever want one of your parents to think. However, Marco does not get this.

“Yes. I was amazed at both their cooking skills and how well they worked together. It looked really good, and I can’t wait to taste it tonight.” Marco is not helping himself, at all. My dad tries to contain his laughter, and I try not to bury my face in the stove to hide.

“Really now?  I am sure you sneaked a little taste?” Jesus fucking hell, dad, no. Stop that. That’s hilariously disgusting.

“I did get to do a quick taste test for Jean earlier, but that will probably be nothing compared to the full meal.” My dad bursts out laughing, and my face burns up with embarrassment. Dear god, how does Marco not catch on. I turn to him, and he looks so confused and innocent, and I have no idea how he is doing that.

“Marco. Babe. He hasn’t been talking about food..” Marco lets it sink in for a second, before realization hits him, and his face is suddenly bright red again, and he goes stiff, yet again.

“Dad. Look what you did. I think you broke my boyfriend.” I wave my hand in front of Marco’s eyes, and he hardly blinks, still looking absolutely mortified. Poor thing.

“Sorry, Jean-Bo. Poor thing is just too innocent for our humor.” He huffs out through his chuckling. Despite the great embarrassment, that was pretty funny. I really do get my sense of humor from my dad. Attitude and all, actually, mainly comes from him.

“Please go and tell Jo that dinner is almost done while I try and calm this one down.” I gesture towards Marco, whose still frozen in space.

“Alright, Alright.” He waves a pale hand at me, and vanishes from the kitchen. I turn towards Marco, and cup his face in my hands.

“Marco?  Babe? Calm down, my dad left the room.” I squish his cheeks a bit, and he blinks rapidly before dropping his head down on my shoulder and releasing a great sigh.

“That was so embarrassing.” He whines like a small child whose parent just showed all their friends their naked baby pictures. I chuckle a bit at his expense, and gently pat his head with my hand.

“Chill, it means he likes you. He wouldn’t joke with you like that if he didn’t.” I hope that’s reassuring enough for him. He sighs, and pulls his head up, and looks down at me.

“How did I not get those innuendo’s? What a wonderful first impression.” He continues to complain, ignoring the comment I already made.

“Marco.  Babe. Calm down, you didn’t hear a word I just said, did you? He likes you. He wouldn’t have made those stupid innuendos if he didn’t. My dads the kind of dude where it is obvious if he doesn’t like you.”  He hears it this time, and just sort of stares at me, lost and confused.

“Wait. He approves of me?” Is all he chokes out, and I can’t help but roll my eyes. Didn’t I just say that Marco.

“He practically fucking adopted you, Marco.” That bright, signiture smile of his suddenly pops back up on his lips, and he pulls me close in a tight hug.

“That’s good.. That’s really good.” I suddenly understand why Marco was so embarrassed and nervous. He’s so worried about my family liking him. Did he not hear what I told him before we started making out earlier?

“Jesus fuck, Marco where you that worried? Idiot, didn’t I tell you that as long as I like you, it doesn’t matter what my family thinks. That no matter their opinion, I am still gonna stay with you? Or where you not listening earlier?” He chuckles a bit at me, and leans down closer to my face, to lightly kiss my forehead.

“No, I heard. That’s not gonna stop me from trying to winning your parents approval, though.” He moves down from my forehead, to my lips. The kiss lasts probably half a second before there is a deep coughing sound.

“Couldn’t wait to steal another taste, huh?” Marco instantly buries his face in my shoulder to hide his shame and embarrassment while I pat his back.

“Must you give him a heart attack like that, Dad.” My only response though, is a chuckle, and a nod from him, and a very confused look from Jo.

**  
  
**

“So was the actually meal worth the wait, Marco?” My dad refuses to stop teasing Marco, but at least Marco is slowly starting to get used to it.

“It was very good.” The three of us sit around the table, our plates cleared and our stomachs filled. Jolene starts to get up, and starts to load the dishwasher with anything and everything that we dirtied in the process of the dinner.

“Alright. I’ve got a few phone calls to make, thank you for making dinner.” My dad excuses himself from dinner, so Marco and I get up as well, and help clean the kitchen in utter silence.

**  
  
**

“Are you sure your dad likes me?” Marco asks again as we make our way up to my room for the night, and I sigh.

“Does his approval really mean that much, Marco? Didn’t I tell you that even if they didn’t like you, I still would?” I don’t stop, I just keep walking till we are both in my room, then I shut, and lock the door for the night.

“That’s all that matters in the end, yes, but I would still really like to have your parents approval. My goal here is not to give you an ultimatum.” He moves past me, towards my bed, so I reach and grab his hand.

“There is no ultimatum, Marco. It’s not gonna be you or my parents. It’s you, end of story. There’s no contest between one person who cares about me and makes me happy, and two people who care more about their jobs then their son.”  I don’t understand why this is such a big deal to Marco. I’ve already explained this to him, why doesn’t he get it?

“You can’t tell me that you aren’t relieved that your dad does approve of me though. You can’t just say that you don’t care about your parents opinion, because you do, you were afraid to bring me here, Jean.” What right does Marco have to tell me how I feel? How could he possibly know what I am actually thinking? That’s the thing. He can’t.

“I was afraid for your sake, you idiot. I don’t care about their opinion, but I was afraid of your opinion. I was afraid you wouldn’t like my family. That you wouldnt be willing to go through this. That you would end up thinking I am not worth whatever trouble my parents cause for us. I was afraid that whatever you found in this house would send you running for the hills. I am happy that my dad approves of you, yes. I care more about the fact that you approve of my dad, though. That’s why there is no Ultimatum, you jerk.” I pull my hand off of his, and cross my arms over my chest, while he stands there staring at me, dumbstruck.

“Jean..” He whispers something under his breath, and I think it might have been my name but I am not sure. The next thing I know though, I am in his arms, my face nuzzled in his chest.

“Jean.. I wouldn’t leave you no matter what your family is like.. Now should we get some sleep?”  Today has just been one big, stupid, miscommunication of an argument, and it would be really nice to end it..

“Sleep sounds good..” The only thing is, I know that when I wake up, My mom will be home, and she’s not gonna be happy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god. Guys I am so sorry. As I think I mentioned before, I am having laptop problems, so I havent been able to get on unless it was through my phone, and I can't update like that. hope you enjoyed this chapter at leastit's very small, and very simple, I know. While I was off I continued writing, but that was very hard considering school, and staying after school to help out with my departments musical. I hope you guys can forgive me. I also have chapter twenty almost done, and I'll be updating as much as I can, while I can, because I dont know how long this connection will last. If you guys would like to contact me;  
> My tumblr is ; http://missmayatwar.tumblr.com/   
> My twitter; @BmaybeB  
> Id be happy to talk to you guys about anything, or answer any questions you ask. Again, I am sorry that updates might end up being far and few in between, but I will update at any chance I get, I promise. I hope you guys liked this chapter more then I did. Thank you guys so much.


	20. Courage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I found my courage, but you're still missing your brain and your heart." -Me (like two minutes ago while creating the chapter title.)   
> You met dad, now lets meet mom..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY. Okay, I know this is late. Like REALLY REALLY REALLY LATE. My life is such a mess right now, and Ii've hardly found time to right, this chapter was going to be longer but I felt so bad about the extremely unplanned hiatus that I felt the need to break the chapter in two, in give you guys what I have, just to give you something. Things are clearing up for me, I think, so I'll try and get the next part up soon. 
> 
> ALSO. IMPORTANT NOTE. PLEASE READ: Okay, so I've got two other JeanMarco fics that have yet to be posted, and I will be posting ONE of them soon, as they've both got multiple chapters written from a long time ago when I actually had free time, I can upload and update them a lot easier. So, the closer we grow to the end of this story, I would like to add a new story. If you could please comment with your opinion on which AU you would like to see me post.   
> Your options are:  
> -Pirate AU (In which Jean, a very well known pirate actually gets the tables turned on him, and he's sold to another pirate. Jeans very unhappy and very rude.)  
> -Bakery AU (In which Jean owns a bakery, and runs it with Sasha and Krista. Marco is a college kid with a little sister going through some finacial struggles after his parents died, and a good friend of his hooks him up with a job at Jeans Bakery.)  
> both have multiple chapters all ready written. (Both have hints of Erejean. Not gonna lie.) and I, personally really love both and am very conflicted about which to post, so I'd love your guy's opinion!

“What do you mean he?” My mother's shrill voice shouting at my father is not exactly the way I want to wake up in the morning, and it’s definitely not the way I want Marco to have to wake up in my house for the first time, but low-and-behold, here we are. Both of us are wide awake , and looking at each other with concern through our tired eyes.

“Come here..” Is the first thing Marco says to me, pulling me close to him, his head resting over mine, and his arms wrapping tightly around my body. I am not exactly sure why he feels the need to do this in this moment, and I don’t really get why I feel like I need it, but I am not complaining. Marco is warm, comfortable, and reliable. He’s something secure and solid for me to hold onto when I get scared, or when I start to worry. My safe place, I guess you could say, and I think now is a good time as any other to want to be safe.

“We’ll get up whenever you say you’re ready. Okay. You don’t have to go down there if you don’t want to..” He whispers to me, shifting his head awkwardly, so that he may press his lips gently to my hair. I feel this weird, hot feeling of contradiction in the pit of my stomach as he says that. It’s such a wonderful idea, that I don’t have to go down there, that I won’t have to face my mom, that I won’t have to deal with the truth. It’s such a great, great thought. But.. I know it can’t happen. It’s an obligation at this point. I have to tell my mom. I have to show her who I am. I need her to see this, and realize that Marco is what makes me happy. No matter how she takes it, I need to tell her. I can’t just hide my whole world from my mother, I can’t just lie about who I am to her face forever.

“No.. It’s okay.. We can go down.. in a minute..” I snuggle closer to Marco, trying to steal as much of that warm, happy and secure feeling that he gives me while I can, hoping that it will fuel my courage to go down there, and it does. My dad has probably already told my mom, and she doesn’t seem to be taking it all that well, but this isn’t over untill she hears it straight from my mouth. Till she see’s Marco with her own eyes, and see’s how happy I am with him, whether she likes it or not.

“Alright. Take your time..” He doesn’t question me, not in the slightest, only holds me tighter when I nuzzle closer, and kisses the top of my head again. With my eyes gently shut and my head against Marco’s chest, I take a deep sigh, and slowly count to sixty. When those seconds are up, I open my eyes, and move my head to look up at Marco, lightly kiss him on the lips, figuring it may be a good few hours before I can be this affectionate with him again. I also do it for one last little boost of confidence.

“I would like to go down stairs now..”

Marco and I both got up, fixed up just slightly, choosing to stay in our PJ’s, and then headed for the stairs. Before we descend down them, I pause, and Marco copies me, looking at me cautiously, probably wondering if I am suddenly gonna back out of this, and go back to cowering under my blankets. Instead of bolting for it though, I just reach my hand out, gripping desperately at his own. He lets out this little sigh, that’s hardly even there to begin with, and fixes our hands so that they are more comfortably locked together. He slowly raises our intertwined palms, and kisses the top of my hand, before he continues down the stairs with me. My whole body feels warm and energetic, just because of that one, silly gesture. That boy doesn’t have the slightest clue of what he does to me.

“Dad? Mom?” I try to call out once we reach the last step, but it comes out as more of a desperate choking noise that packs a pretty punch at my confidence. However, whatever courage I lost because of my stupid voice cracking like that, is brought back by a strong squeeze that Marco gives my hand.

“Jean! Go back to bed boys!” My dad emerges from the kitchen, and he tries to shoo us away the very second he see’s us, but it’s too late. Mom has walked out as well. Her pail skin is coated by her usual after work wear,  black silk pants, and a brown, soft over coat, with the heeled boots to match. Her hair is pulled back in a high, neat bun, and her eyes are dark. Her expression is a mixture of anger, disappointment, and confusion, and I just can’t understand why it’s a combination of those three. None the less, the look she gives me hurts.

“Jean, baby. Can I talk to you for a moment. Alone.” My heart drops to the pit of my stomach, and is disintegrated by my stomach acid, because I know exactly what is about to happen. Here’s a hint; it involves a great amount of shouting and possibly  pain. Judging by dads tense shoulders, and the cold glare in his eyes, and the way Marco’s grip tightens on my hand,  I am probably not the only one who can see what’s about to happen.

“Fine.” I agree to it regardless, because I may be scared shit-less right about now, with zero hope of anything even semi-good happening, but I do realize that this is my battle. This is my life, this is my challenge, my fight, and I am going to win it on my fucking own. I yank my hand free from Marco’s, and I try not to look back at him as I walk towards the garage. I know Marco is just as afraid as I am. He’s just as worried as I am. He just wants to protect me, and make sure I am okay, and there is nothing wrong with that. That is wonderful. But like I said; this is my battle, and I am fighting it for both of us.

Mother’s heels click constantly only a few steps behind me, and I pick up my pace, and try to hurry into the garage. It’s not till I am in there, and she is behind me, slamming the door shut with a loud ‘bang’ that I realize I just ran straight into hell.

“Sweetie. What the hell are you thinking? A guy, Jean? You’re not gay.” She snaps at me, but she’s trying to remain somewhat calm, I can tell by her posture; How tense her shoulders are as she crosses her arms across her, and how her chest rises and falls with deep breaths, the slight hesitation as she steps towards me. She doesn’t know what to say to me, how to handle the situation, and that is very unlike her, my dad had to say something to her before Marco and I came down stairs, otherwise, she would be angrier, she’d be in control of the situation.

“No. Your right, I am not gay. Im pansexual. Either way, It doesn’t matter because regardless, I am in a relationship with Marco, you can’t change that.” I do my best to stay calm, and stand my ground against her. The frown on her lips is tight, and she lets out a deep sigh.

“I don’t know what you think you are, but you are not Jean. You’ve never wanted this, what happened to the plan?  Going to college, medical school, growing up, getting married, having kids, being happy and growing old with someone? I thought you wanted a normal life, son.” I hate to sound like some lame, teenage movie cliche, but that was never my dream, that was always my parents dream, her dream.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I already trashed that plans. I don’t plan on being a doctor or a nurse anymore, remember? My plan is a bit different then yours. I want to finish college, I want to find a nice career that I will have fun with, and can make my living. Maybe someday I will want to get married and have kids, I don’t know, I still think I am a bit young to decide that, but if I do,  who's to say it’s not with another guy? Just because I am with a guy doesn’t mean I can’t have a ‘normal’ life. Yes, I want to be happy, but if you havent noticed, I already am. That guy in there, mom? My boyfriend, the one you won’t give the time of day to just because his genitals don’t match up to what you think he should have? He makes me happy.” I fight everything she throws at me, and yet, she still won’t back down, if anything, that made her angrier.

“You can’t marry another man, Jean. It’s not normal, it’s not natural. You can’t have kids with him either. Will he still make you happy then? When you are old, unmarried, and without children?” She barks at me, and I realize something. She’s breaking, she’s reaching for every excuse she can, she’s looking for anything she can in that head of hers to try and fight me. But it’s not going to work on me.

“You’re wrong. Gay marriage is legal now, Marriage will not be a problem, I can still have a nice beautiful wedding, and if we want kids, we can adopt. So don’t you dare and try and use having children as an excuse, because we could, and you know damn well that if I was with a girl who couldn’t have kids, it wouldn't be a problem. You are just coming up with excuses as to why I shouldn’t be with another guy.” I shoot her down instantly. Her face is a bit red, and she’s unfolded her arms so that her arms hang down by her sides, hands clenched in fists. She’s got nothing that could convince me I am wrong. I will win this.

“This isn’t normal, Jean.” She moves closer to me, but I don’t move away. If I move away, it’ll give her the impression that I am afraid of her, and I am not. I am not afraid of her, because I’ve got something worth fighting for, I’ve got something that makes me brave.

“Says who, Mom? You? The neighbors? The people at your work? Who cares what they think? What matters is what I think, what matters is that I am happy.” She groans, and looks away from me for a moment, which is a wrong move. She’s breaking.  She couldn’t keep eye contact, she’s slipping, she’s starting to give up. I’ve got to keep pushing her. I’ve got to remember whats on the other side of that door, whats waiting for me.

“How do you know Jean? You are only twenty three, are you really happy?” She’s really going to go with that excuse? The whole, ‘You are too young to know what you want’ crap. She’s getting desperate for an argument here.

“That’s bullshit! If I was old enough to decide to go to college, and start picking out my career and my entire life at the age of seventeen, then I am old enough to know when I am fucking happy at the age of twenty three!” She moves closer to me again, he fists clenching and unclenching. She’s gonna hit me. I can see it, she’s getting restless, tired of this argument, she wants to settle it.

“No you don’t Jean! You don’t know if you are happy or not! You’re only a child, How could you possibly be happy living a life like that!” Her voices raises, she’s less calm now, her voice is angrier, shouting at me harshly. I don’t like the way she says ‘that’. She’s referring to my relationship with Marco,  I get that, but the way she says it, she says it like it’s some sort  of grotesque illness.

“Yes I do! That boy in there, his name is Marco, and he makes me happier then I have ever been and you won’t even give him the time of fucking day. At least let him introduce himself before you decide that he’s the scum of the fucking earth just because I love him.” She’s silent for a moment, she’s unsure what to say, and I can see her anger fading quickly. Those last three words have even my freezing for a moment.

“Jean, Sweetheart, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t possibly lo-” I cut her off before she can say more, I know where she is taking this, and I don’t want it to go down that route.

“No. Mom. Enough. I know what I am doing. This is my life, not yours, and I am perfectly fucking happy the way I am, with him. We’ll be back before dinner, and when we get back, you will fucking look at him, and you will let him introduce himself to you, and you will treat him with respect and kindness despite your shitty homophobia, and you will see how wonderful he is, and how fucking happy that boy makes me, and then maybe you will understand, and let us be happy, and know that no matter what you say, I am not leaving him, I am staying with him, with or without your approval. I’ll be back.” I warn her, before pushing past her, and heading for the garage door. She quickly grabs at my wrist, to stop me.

“Jean you do-” I  interrupt her again, and pull free from her grip.

“You know, I hope I see my mom at the table tonight, because I havent seen her in a while.” I say underneath my breath, but I know she heard it, and I leave before she can say another word. I may have been harsh, but what I said was necessary.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh. I will be honest, writing that chapter kind of hurt me. My parents not accepting me is like, one of my worst fears. Honestly, to write this chapter I envisioned one of the worst possible reactions my parents could give me, and that's that they just deny it. Rather then accepting or not accepting. I hope you liked the chapter, I'll try and post the next chapter soon.
> 
> ALSO. IMPORTANT NOTE. PLEASE READ: Okay, so I've got two other JeanMarco fics that have yet to be posted, and I will be posting ONE of them soon, as they've both got multiple chapters written from a long time ago when I actually had free time, I can upload and update them a lot easier. So, the closer we grow to the end of this story, I would like to add a new story. If you could please comment with your opinion on which AU you would like to see me post.   
> Your options are:  
> -Pirate AU (In which Jean, a very well known pirate actually gets the tables turned on him, and he's sold to another pirate. Jeans very unhappy and very rude.)  
> -Bakery AU (In which Jean owns a bakery, and runs it with Sasha and Krista. Marco is a college kid with a little sister going through some finacial struggles after his parents died, and a good friend of his hooks him up with a job at Jeans Bakery.)  
> both have multiple chapters all ready written. (Both have hints of Erejean. Not gonna lie.) and I, personally really love both and am very conflicted about which to post, so I'd love your guy's opinion! Please comment what you would prefer to see and I'll go with the most popular one!  
> (Also, Have I got any Percy Jackson fans out there? My soul has been consumed by Jasico and if Ii get enough free time, I might write a fic for them, if you've got an opinion on that too, I'd love to hear it..)


	21. Nice To Meet You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The continuation of meeting Jeans mom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go. So my life, once again, has been hopelessly complicated, but I do have more free time. Which means I hope to update more, but no promises, I don't want to get any hopes up just to let you guys down. Just don't be surprised if my stories are all updated more frequently, or if the update pace stays the same. Also, in good news. My new JeanMarco story will come out tonight, It's a Pirate AU that I've had stored away for a long time. It's chapters are rather long, like around twenty or so pages each, so it's updates definitely will be farther apart, though I do have a few chapters pre-written. I hope you guys like it. It's called "Le prince des voleurs" for now, though the title may change in the future.

“Jean.. Are you sure you’re okay?” Marco, Jolene and I find ourselves at the park. It’s been an hour since the fight between my mom and I, and this is the first time someone’s had the courage to say anything. It takes me a moment, but after a while, I do bring myself to look up from the ground, and look at Marco. He sits on the swing to my left, his feet touching the ground as he hovers there, looking at me with this concerned expression on his face. He looks like a sad puppy with those big brown eyes of his. It’s not fair.

“....Yeah..” I mutter a bit, but I don’t think Marco heard it, and if he did, he probably doesn't believe it. Heck, I don’t even believe it. I know I am not okay, I am a fucking mess inside  right now. I used to be so close to my mom when I was little. I loved her to death. She was my favorite thing in the whole wide world. It hurt enough to grow distant from her, and grow to dislike her for it a little bit, but this.. I never thought I’d have to go through that with my mother. Never thought I’d have to argue with her about the person I.. the person I want to be with. Never thought I’d have to yell at her like that.. or say something so cruel.. It hurts. It really does. I think the only reason I choked out a yes to that question, even though we all know damn well that I am not alright, is because Jolene is here. I glance to my right to try and give her a soft smile or something to help convince her that I really am okay, but she’s not looking at me. She sits on the swing to my right, trapping me in between her and Marco. Her swing sways lightly, and her feet just barely touch the ground. She’s staring down at the floor absently, lost in thought, with a small scowl on her lips.

“Jean?” Marco calls my name quietly, and I sigh, and look away from my little sister, and back over to Marco. Guilt suddenly pounds in my chest. He still has that worried expression, and it makes me feel bad for involving him all my personal things. I feel bad that I brought him home with me, even when I knew there would be problems. I brought him into a home that cruelly judged him without even knowing him. I knew that this might happen and yet I still chose to do it. He doesn't deserve this.

“Hey.. We’ll get through this, alright.. Together..You hear me? I am not going anywhere.” He reaches over towards me, and grasps at my hand, holding it tight in his own. I stare at him, baffled. He knew? how could he have possibly known what I was thinking?

“How did you-” I start but he quickly cuts me off with a small laugh, and a gentle squeeze to my hand. He’s so warm...

“The look on your face. You were looking at me like you pitied me. I put two and two together and figured out why. I’ll have you know that I am not going to go running for the hills just because of a few family problems. I plan to stick around for as long as I possibly can, for as long as you want me.” Marco gives me one of his smiles. It’s just a simple, ordinary smile, but it's real, it’s confident, and it’s the brightest, most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever seen. My heart feels like it’s at a rave party as I squeeze his hand, and return the smile.

 

* * *

 

We stayed out all day. After a while at the park, we went to find lunch. Then we went and saw two movies at the dollar theater. We wasted time, basically. We dreaded coming home, so we stalled for as long as possible. Eventually though, We had to go home. We stepped nervously back into the house, greeted by the smell of fresh garlic bread. The table is already set with five places, meaning Marco has been given a place at dinner, like he deserves. My dad sits at one seat, reading something off his phone, a glass of wine in his free hand. When he hears the door open, he glances up to meet our eyes. He smiles softly, puts his phone away, and nods his head. The sure fire ‘Okay’ sign. Marco,  Jolene and I all exchange awkward eye contact, before moving forward, and claiming our seats. Marco sits between Jolene and I.

“Oh good, you're back. Right on time, Dinner is done.” My mother emerges from the kitchen. A smile on her lips. It’s a bit forced, you can tell she’s just slightly uncomfortable.

She looks how she used to. How I remembered her as a kid. She’s not wearing some fancy power suit, or her hospital uniform. No heels, no curled hair, no overuse of makeup. She wears simple blue jeans, and a faded yellow long sleeve shirt. A white apron tied over her front that's splattered with white pasta sauce and butter. Her hair is tied up in a slightly messy pony tail. She’s been cooking in that kitchen for some time now.

She moves back and forth from the kitchen, bringing out the food for everyone, starting with salad. She avoids eye contact when she sets down Marco’s bowl of salad, but when she finally sits in her own chair, next to my father, and begins to eat, she looks directly at him.

“I hope... I hope you will forgive my behavior this morning.. You were.. Quite a shock..” Mom chokes out her words. She struggles a bit with saying it. I don’t think it’s because she doesn't want to. No, If she didn't want to, she wouldn't, that’s just how she is. She struggles because she doesn't know what to say, doesn't know where to begin.

“It’s alright, I understand.” Marco politely nods to her, giving one of his signature smiles. Mom smiles back at him. It’s a bit less forced this time around. It’s silent as well all eat our salad. I watch as my mother's shoulders, and her posture loosen a bit, as she finally begins to relax. Marco holds my unused hand beneath the table the entire time we eat are salads. Conversation does not pick up again until my mom begins to bring out the main course.  Chicken Alfredo with garlic bread. Everything seems to be homemade, even the noodles.

“I hope you like Italian, Marco.” My dad says as he begins to stab at his pasta. Then the unexpected happens.

“Something tells me he prefers French.” My mom jokes, looking down at her plate as she twists some noodles onto her fork. My dad and I burst into laughter while Marco and Jolene look confused. My mother grins a bit, proud of he joke she’s made. When I am done laughing, I look over at Marco, who looks at me curiously. He doesn’t get it.

“Marco. I am French.” I say, looking him dead in the eye, trying hard not to chuckle as hs face heats up in embarrassment.

“Oh..” He mutters, finally understanding the slight sexual innuendo my mother made. His face heats up, making him look like a strawberry. My parents really get a kick out of teasing Marco, especially since he is far to innocent to catch their inappropriate jokes.

“So Marco.. You plan to be a teacher?” My dad picks up conversation after the joke fades. Something tells me this is the first of many questions.

“Uh. Yes. I want to be an English teacher.” He confirms. My parents nod thoughtfully. Beneath the table, Marco and I still have our hands intertwined, so I squeeze his palm supportingly. I hope he’s ready for a thorough interview. My parents may have, more or less so, have moved past him being a guy. That doesn’t mean he’s cleared to be with me though. Gender does not change the fact that my parents still have high expectations for my partner.

“What grade would you teach?” Mom questions. Marco pauses thoughtfully for a moment, like that’s something he’s still not entirely sure of.

“Probably a high school grade. I am a lover of literature. I’d like to teach a grade that I can properly share and teach that love.” His answer comes smoothly, and with a fond smile as Marco begins to envision his future. My parents nod thoughtfully to his answer. Both parents are fond of reading, my mother more so then my father, I think. Marco and My mother having something in common could be very good.

“What are some of your favorite works? Any favorite authors?” My mom asks, wanting to go into detail on their shared interest.

“Hmm..I admit, I do like some older, classics. Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain. I am a huge fan of Stephen King.” Marco hums in thought as he talks. My mom nods appreciatively. I know she’s a fan of Oscar Wilde and Stephen King. She reads a bit of Shakespeare, but I have no idea about Mark Twain. My mom used to read Stephen King books to me when I was younger, she loved them that much. I enjoyed them too. That’s why I love them so now.

“Good choices.. Do you read any poetry?”  She makes another attempt to keep the conversation going, though her tone is slow and hesitant. I know she used to love poetry, read that to me when I was little too.

“I like poetry, but I am very picky with it. I have a few poetry books at home. I have the complete works of Robert Frost. His poems are very interesting. I have a few miscellaneous books too by lesser known authors.” Again, my mother nods thoughtfully. She’s pleased with Marco’s answers so far.

“And you work at the coffee shop on campus, correct?” On to more questions.

“Yes,  I do.”

“What’s that like?”

“It’s a nice job. Nice bosses. Flexible hours. That’s how we met, actually. At the coffee shop.” Marco makes a risky move by pulling our relationship into the conversation. He was doing fine, just talking about himself, connecting to my parents. He may have broken some of what he just built, judging by the way my mom bites down on her lip momentarily. Then she takes a quick, deep breath, and lets it go, and the tension is gone.

“Really?” She asks, letting the conversation move forward, even if it’s into a zone she’s uncomfortable with.

“Yeah.. Jean came into the shop twice a day, apparently during his work out, for coffee..” He starts off telling the story, squeezing my hand gently beneath the table. I smile softly as I continue to eat my dinner. This is going.. smoothly.. I didn’t expect this, honestly.

“Let me guess, you took his order and it was love at first sight?” My dad jokes. It’s an extreme effort for me not to choke on my garlic bread. Marco only laughs it off, though I know the comment freaked him out too. Neither of us have said the “L” yet of course, it’s way too soon for anything like that...

“No, actually. I did notice him after a while, once I did, he was hard to forget... I tried for days to get to take his order, but my friend and co-worker caught on, and preventing me from taking Jeans order, or knowing his name, became his new source of amusement. I finally managed though.” I blush swarms into my cheeks. He’d been trying to talk to me for days before the first time we talked? Fucking Connie..

“After that we ran into each other a bit more, started talking a bit more.. found out that we actually hung around in the same circle of people more or less, and we became friends.. Our first date was actually a blind date set up by one of our mutual friends..” Marco and I both chuckle quietly at the awkward memory of arriving at the unwanted blind date, only to find each other.

“Hmm.. and how many dates have you guys been on?” It’s dad's turn to pick up on the conversation. Jo and I stay quiet, stuffing our faces with our dinner.

“Four. We became official on the third.. We hang out all the time though. We help each other with our school work, and studying. He comes into the coffee shop to study sometimes if I am working and waits for my break, or for my shift to end. Or I’ll bring him snacks while he studies, whenever I have the time..” Again with the head nodding. I swear, my parents are starting to look like bobble heads.

“Who asked who?” Marco and I both blush a bit, and I can practically hear the fireworks from that night.

“Jean beat me to it. If he hadn’t asked me when he did, I would have asked him about an hour later, at the end of the night.” I smile a bit as my blush deepens. I didn't know that. It’s an odd form of comfort to know that even if I was unable to find the courage to ask him myself, Marco would have turned right around and asked me instead. It’s nice to know that even if I hadn't asked him that night, we still would have ended up where we are now.

“How Sweet..  Do you live on the campus?”

“Yeah, my dorm building is on the other side of campus from Jeans.”

“Oh? Jean mentioned your family doesn't celebrate thanksgiving, and that’s why you’re here with us all week. Even if they did not celebrate thanksgiving, wouldn’t you like to go home and see them?”  Marco tenses a bit next to me. I never thought of that, why wouldn't he want to go home to see his family? Marco never really talks about his family, though I believe he has a brother Jolenes age. I think the topic is a sensitive one for him.

“Truthfully, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of parting from Jean for so long.. Besides, I don’t have much of a family to return to...” Marco mutters the last part out. His smile fades and his eyes sadden. My parents share a glance of what looks like pity. They do that weird, conversation without words thing, before they look back to Marco and I.

“Well.. We’re happy to have you here with us for the week.” My mom says, slowly. She’s pushing herself to say it. She means it, at least to some degree. She’s still not completely over me coming out, but she’s trying.. She trying, and that’s all I need from her at the moment. I smile at her, and she sees it.

“Thank you. I am happy to be here as well..” Marco’s smile slowly makes it’s way back onto his lips as he looks over at me, and once again, he squeezes my hand beneath the table.

“That reminds me... I don’t think I’ve had the chance to properly meet you.”  My mom glances at me, and she smiles. For the first time tonight, it’s not forced in any way. It’s a pure, genuine and innocent smile. It’s a beautiful sight to see her smile like that. I don’t think I’ve seen that smile in a long, long time.

“Well alright then. Hello there, Mrs.Kirstein. I am Marco Bodt. I am dating your wonderful son.” Marco grins around hsi absolutely cheesy greeting that has me blushing. Again.

“Hello, Marco. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope you take good care of my son..” Something in my mom's honey brown eyes breaks. Shatters. I am not sure what, but whatever it is, it’s a good change. Because she really looks like my mom now. Not Mrs. Kirstein. Not the surgeon. Not the upper class, suburban mom facade that all her friends see. She’s just my mom.

“Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Kirstein.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked the chapter. Next update should be the next few days in the vacation, and how they are spent. 
> 
> Here we go. So my life, once again, has been hopelessly complicated, but I do have more free time. Which means I hope to update more, but no promises, I don't want to get any hopes up just to let you guys down. Just don't be surprised if my stories are all updated more frequently, or if the update pace stays the same. Also, in good news. My new JeanMarco story will come out tonight, It's a Pirate AU that I've had stored away for a long time. It's chapters are rather long, like around twenty or so pages each, so it's updates definitely will be farther apart, though I do have a few chapters pre-written. I hope you guys like it. It's called "Le prince des voleurs" for now, though the title may change in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> So this happened. I dont know how. But it did. So, enjoy i guess? I'll update as frequently as possible and yeah. Dont be afraid to comment, i love feedback!


End file.
